LONDON (AFP) - - British YouTube users who regularly post popular clips on the video-sharing website will be paid for their efforts, those behind the new system said Thursday.

Posters will earn a share of the revenue generated from the adverts which run alongside their clips, which could potentially earn them thousands of pounds (dollars, euros) per month.

The YouTube Partner Programme has already been piloted in the United States and Canada.

The scheme is open to "popular and prolific original content creators", who must apply to become partners. They will be accepted if they regularly upload videos which are viewed by thousands. One-hit wonders do not qualify.

YouTube, owned by Google, would not say what percentage of the advertising revenue posters would receive.

However, US partners whose videos regularly received more than one million hits were earning several thousand dollars (euros) per month, a spokesman said.