Around the Net
Google To Overhaul YouTube
- The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, April 7, 2011 11:07 AM
Amid a rise in "connected" living rooms, Google is reportedly planning a major, channel- and original content-driven overhaul of YouTube. "YouTube is looking to compete with broadcast and cable television ... a goal that requires it to entice users to stay on the website longer, and to convince advertisers that it will reach desirable consumers," reports The Wall Street Journal.
What's more, as more viewers watch YouTube from their couches, "The world's most popular video Web site will invest tens of millions of dollars in professionally-produced original programming," reports the Guardian. Indeed, Google is reportedly ready to shell out $100 million for the initiative. "The price tag suggests that YouTube would be willing to not only share in the ad revenues with select partners, but could help them finance production and creation of these new video channels," writes GigaOm.
As paidContent reminds us, "The report comes less than a month after YouTube purchased Next New Networks, which produces a number of Web shows. For years," as Search Engine Land points out, "Google has been positioning itself as more than just an amateur video depot." Not anymore. Fortune notes, "Google has always cut a pretty clear line between ‘organizing the world's information' and creating it." So much for that.
Going forward, "Google plans to turn its YouTube property into something more like a traditional TV network," writes VentureBeat. "And of course, it would be a way for Google to combat Netflix's dominance when it comes to feature-length videos."
