Rachel_Sandford
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Popular video sharing site, YouTube, is set to push for more high quality content. The Google-owned site is soon to rival cable and satellite TV by launching 100 new professionally produced on-demand TV channels. Some channels are set to start “broadcasting” in autumn, but most will begin next year, and each one will offer 25 hours of new programming each day, absolutely free of charge.
Creating really promising content, YouTube has partnered up with big name stars like Madonna, Jay-Z actor Ashton Kutcher, actress Sofia Vergara, actor Rainn Wilson, comedian Amy Poehler, former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, skating legend Tony Hawk, inspirational author Deepak Chopra, and CSI creator Antony Suiker.
Many of the stars will be creating channels through their production companies, but others will be launched by media entities. These include the Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters, Hearst, news satire The Onion, online magazine Slate, WWE, Lionsgate (to do a fitness channel), and FreemantleMedia (to do a pet channel.)
Though the site declined to offer full financial details, according to sources, YouTube is paying up to $100 million to producers and about $5 million per channel. The sum is part of an advance on advertising money, something the site is likely to see more of as plenty of advertisers will be willing to place ads alongside professional videos versus “user-generated” ones. Sources also say that a majority of the revenue of the venture will be going to the partners.
A blog post by Robert Kyncl, global head of content partnerships at YouTube read: “Cable television expanded our viewing possibilities from just a handful of channels to hundreds. Today, the web is bringing us entertainment from an even wider range of talented producers, and many of the defining channels of the nest generation are being born, and watched, on YouTube. For advertisers, these channels will represent a new way to engage and reach their global consumers.”
Google has also announced that the new YouTube channels will offer Google TV users something more to watch. The company recently revamped Google TV, adding search tools and expanding results to include shows on cable, Amazon, and Netflix.
Creating really promising content, YouTube has partnered up with big name stars like Madonna, Jay-Z actor Ashton Kutcher, actress Sofia Vergara, actor Rainn Wilson, comedian Amy Poehler, former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, skating legend Tony Hawk, inspirational author Deepak Chopra, and CSI creator Antony Suiker.
Many of the stars will be creating channels through their production companies, but others will be launched by media entities. These include the Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters, Hearst, news satire The Onion, online magazine Slate, WWE, Lionsgate (to do a fitness channel), and FreemantleMedia (to do a pet channel.)
Though the site declined to offer full financial details, according to sources, YouTube is paying up to $100 million to producers and about $5 million per channel. The sum is part of an advance on advertising money, something the site is likely to see more of as plenty of advertisers will be willing to place ads alongside professional videos versus “user-generated” ones. Sources also say that a majority of the revenue of the venture will be going to the partners.
A blog post by Robert Kyncl, global head of content partnerships at YouTube read: “Cable television expanded our viewing possibilities from just a handful of channels to hundreds. Today, the web is bringing us entertainment from an even wider range of talented producers, and many of the defining channels of the nest generation are being born, and watched, on YouTube. For advertisers, these channels will represent a new way to engage and reach their global consumers.”
Google has also announced that the new YouTube channels will offer Google TV users something more to watch. The company recently revamped Google TV, adding search tools and expanding results to include shows on cable, Amazon, and Netflix.
