The Vangelis NewsRoom » Youtube

YouTube to pull funding for 60% of original channels

Bretos Margetis — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 18:57:35 +0000

The Internet’s leading video site YouTube will be axing 60 per cent of its original content a year after the launch of the “professional channels initiative”, it has been reported.

According to a report by Ad Age, the video site will now only fund 30 to 40 per cent of its initial 160 channel partners. The new channel roster will also be incorporating European programming as producers from the UK, France and Germany have been contracted to create content.

YouTube made an investment of $100 million (£63 million) back in December 2011 to establish a range of professionally produced channels. The production of original content represented a bid to create a comparable service to YouTube’s video-on-demand competitors like Netflix, iPlayer and LoveFilm.

“Our biggest objective was to kick-start the ecosystem, to bring in great creators, to deepen our relationships with advertisers and to grow viewership,” said global head of content, Jamie Byrne.

The investment was not free capital however, as it was an upfront payment of a year’s worth of advertising revenues. Therefore each channel was required to recoup the money via attached advertising – if not, YouTube would be operating said channel at a loss. This need to cut costs has compelled Google’s video service to narrow its focus on channels that can best regain their upfront funding.

“We looked at viewership they’ve been able to achieve, the cost of the content, and from that we are able to determine the channels that are delivering the best return on our investment,” said Byrne.

The top 25 channels brought an average of a million views per week, with the 33 most viewed channels earning 100,000 subscriptions.

Content providers that are in line for further funding will be contacted in the coming weeks and can reportedly expect a cash injection of $1-5 million (£630,000 – £3 million).

by Oluseun Alufa,

21 Billion Videos Viewed on Youtube Each Month

Bretos Margetis — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:33:55 +0000

A recent report revealed that YouTube is responsible for about 21 billion videos viewed during a month.

In the month of October, the Google-owned YouTube again topped the list of destinations for online video consumption outnumbering the rest combined by a “factor of four” as per the latest comScore data.

After YouTube, Facebook is where users watched 346 million videos followed by Vevo with around 827 million videos, then Microsoft with 661 million, Viacom with 540 million, and Yahoo with 551 million. in ninth place is Hulu, the very popular destination for TV programs and for subscriber VOD services, Hulu Plus, with 791 million video views. Tenth place went to Turner Digital, as reported by Home Media Magazine.

YouTube tracked the biggest number of unique viewers, around 161 million, which is almost three times more than Facebook with 59 million viewers. In this category, Hulu along with Hulu Plus had 29 million unique viewers.

The most interesting fact in the report is that an average YouTube user views 424 minutes of video which is double the number of minutes a viewer spends on Hulu.

Source: Erica Thinesen

Disney Films Now Available for Rent on Youtube

Bretos Margetis — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:27:19 +0000

Disney films will now be available on YouTube for rent. This move seems like the newest play by the Google-owned website to turn itself into an online digital stage for digital video content.

Hundreds of Disney films including Pixar and Dream Works have joined the stock of Hollywood titles that can be enjoyed as streaming rentals at youtube.com/movies.

According to Minjae Ormes, YouTube movies and television marketing manager, at present movies available for rent include “Alice in Wonderland” and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.

In a blog post Ormes promised, “Even more of the great Disney classics and new releases will be added in weeks to come, including our YouTube Movie Extras with behind-the-scenes clips, interviews, and more,” as reported by Dawn.

Earlier this month, Walt Disney Co. and YouTube stated that they will join together to produce a series of original videos that feature “family-friendly” Disney programming on YouTube.

In a joint statement both companies said, “Disney Interactive will produce and program the co-branded video destinations for both Disney.com and YouTube, providing a family-friendly experience for viewers across both platforms.”

Source: Erica Thinesen