YouTube is now selling ads against 9% of its video inventory, up from just 6% a year ago,
Ad Age's Michael Learmonth reports. According to Shishir Mehrotra, YouTube's director-product
management, the company is selling ads against "hundreds of millions of views" each month. He added that YouTube sells ads on more videos than its nearest competitor, Fox Interactive Media, has total
views. According to comScore, FIM had 463 million views in February; or 8.7% of YouTube's 5.3 billion views for the month.
Learmonth says the gains are due to a number of factors, from more
content agreements with big partners like CBS and MGM, to expanding YouTube's network of smaller content producers. But Mehrotra says that YouTube's growth strategy doesn't hinge on such deals. "We're
not saying we don't want them; we're very proud of our agreement with Disney. But we aren't hinging our strategy around it. If it's great for our users, it happens to be good for monetization as
well," he said.
Nevertheless, the increased rate of monetization "doesn't necessarily make YouTube a better business than MySpace or Hulu," says Learmonth. "High-profile studio deals won't
be enough to boost the overall percentage of views monetized and to realize YouTube's potential."
Read the whole story at Advertising Age »