YouTube throws ad packages at the wall in the hopes that something will stick. The viral video site's latest move is to sell advertiser videos on the home page and special advertiser-created pages.
Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. records will be the first to roll out the ad pages with a video promotion for Paris Hilton's new music album, released today. In a bizarre twist, the Warner Bros. page
also contains advertising real estate, as Time Warner competitor News Corp. will pay to advertise its "Prison Break" TV series on Hilton's page. YouTube and Warner Bros. will share ad revenue. Selling
ads on ads: It's a strange world we live in, folks. Earlier in the year, the closely held online video company forged a similar pact with NBC that gives the broadcaster its own page to post promos of
new TV shows. To date, YouTube, which is just 18 months old, has carried display and text ads it has sold itself or brokered via third parties. Company execs say they aim to create a system that
pioneers new ad formats and could be extended to broker ads for other Web publishers, a la Google. Chad Hurley, the young company's chief executive, says YouTube's strategy "revolves around the idea
of having brand advertisers participate and become part of our community." Google is leveraging its giant publisher network by opening up a content distribution system that sees publishers, content
providers and Google all sharing pieces of ad revenue.
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