Late Payouts From YouTube MCN Omnia Media Have Caused Stress For Stars

Omnia Media, a YouTube MCN owned by Enthusiast Gaming, currently owes tens of thousands of dollars to multiple influencers who are, or previously have been, signed to the company, with previous payments arriving late. This has caused a lot of stress for stars who have been impacted.

Last month reports came out that Omnia Media had started paying creators much later than they had previously done. YouTubers Coffeezilla and SomeOrdinaryGamers released videos on the subject, following on from some creators starting to speak out about their issues with Omnia Media.

Now, a month on, payments are still outstanding to multiple creators and others are arriving outside the contractually agreed time frame, which is causing issues for some of the talents who are owed money.

Before getting further into this, I should disclose that in early 2021 I was hired by Enthusiast Gaming on a contract basis to work on an esports website they planned to launch, however was let go two weeks later after they decided to go “another way with staffing.” This had no impact on the reporting of this article.

“I had to pay my surgeon for follow-up appointments to check on me and I had no money because they [Omnia Media] were withholding it,” said Lewis Spears, a stand up comedian and YouTuber who underwent surgery around the same time his payments from Omnia Media started to arrive late.

Spears had been with Omnia Media for around 10 years, joining the network when being part of an MCN was effectively a requirement to make money on YouTube. Until late 2023 his ad revenue payments had always arrived on a regular schedule typically at the start of the month after his ad revenue had been paid to Omnia Media by YouTube. For example, his April ad revenue payments would arrive in early June.

However, after his payment for his October 2023 earnings was paid out in early December 2023, he then did not receive any payments from Omnia Media until early February 2024 when his November revenue was paid, going two full months with no ad revenue payments. While technically within the terms of his contract with Omnia, the change, which was not communicated to Spears at the time, made things very difficult for him.

“I was completely fucked,” said Spears. “I spent all of my savings on surgeries that I needed to get. So this happened for me at the absolute worst time that it could have. I had no money and I was scrambling to figure out how I was going to pay surgeons for follow-up appointments, to pay for insurance bills, to pay for my orthodontist to look at my teeth to make sure that I was healing properly. It was It was horrible and very stressful.”

Since then some payments have arrived outside of the contracted payment window, which thanks to a 30-day ‘cure clause’ gives Omnia Media the ability to pay up to 75 days after the end of the month they receive ad revenue from YouTube. Despite having such a long time to pay out, multiple influencers have received payments after this window with some still outstanding.

One such influencer is Memeulous, a YouTuber who hides his real identity and goes by the name George. A week ago he released a video describing the issues he has had with Omnia Media and payments arriving late, even outside of this 75-day window. While Spears has received his January ad revenue payment, George is still waiting for his, being told the company hopes to pay it by the end of June.

“There was a few month period where I just didn’t get money from AdSense,” said George. “It was like I’d had something taken from me, which I felt wasn’t someone else’s to take. At the point when I was feeling really down about it, they were abiding within the contract, but I still felt as though I was being mugged off a bit. Now I feel as though, emotionally I’m kind of over it. Of course, I’d like the money, but in my mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just ran off with it.”

Despite fears from influencers involved that they may never see the money they are owed, Omnia Media has said that it intends to pay out all the contractually owed money.

“Omnia is still owned by Enthusiast Gaming and intends to honor all of the creator’s contractual entitlements, as it has done for its over 10 year history as a YouTube CSP,” said Omnia Media in a statement. “There are currently tough economic times and short-term industry headwinds that have led to us making tough decisions and executing significant layoffs, no different than many other companies such as Riot [Games], Amazon, Twitch, Nintendo, Microsoft, and more. These layoffs alongside administrative and operational changes to the businesses have led to these temporary delays in creators payments, however, we do intend to honor all of these payments.”

Both Spears and George detailed a lack of communication from Omnia Media since being taken over by Enthusiast Gaming, with both mentioning they had good relationships with staff there until the sale, at which point getting a reply from the company became a struggle.

For George, one of the replies he has got pushed him to the point of going public about his issues with the company. When a response from the Omnia support email arrived informing him that his January payment would hopefully arrive by the end of June, he decided to speak out in the hopes of warning others and trying to put pressure on the company to pay out the creators it owes money to.

“The thing is, if they were like, ‘Oh, you know, sorry, we’ll pay it two days after the end of the cure period,’ I would probably be like, whatever, fine,” said George. “But it’s the fact that they’re just so blatantly being like yeah, fuck you, we’re not going to pay you 1717172229, you might get it in June, who knows?”

Both George and Spears have terminated their contracts with Omnia Media but are still waiting to be paid their final months of ad revenue.

“All creators have direct access to communications via the Omnia support email where they receive timely responses on upcoming payment timelines, in addition to this, any creators that have asked to disconnect from the Omnia network due to the delays have had those requests honored ahead of their contractual end date,” reads a statement from Omnia Media. “We appreciate the creators’ patience throughout this time and we look forward to continuing to provide new revenue and monetization opportunities for the creators we work with.”

While it is good to see that the company intends to pay out the money it owes, it doesn’t resolve them of the issues that the changes in payment dates and late payments have already caused to multiple creators.

“I never thought I would be on Forbes for making no money,” joked Spears who is now trying to build up his YouTube audience once again after having to take a break because of his surgery. A return to touring means the late payments from Omnia Media are no longer putting him in danger of not being able to pay his bills, but for a while over the last few months, the decisions from the company put him in a very difficult financial position for seemingly no good reason. Making an already difficult period of his life significantly harder.