• Advertising Age, Monday, June 9, 2008 11:32 AM

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that monetizing YouTube is priority No.1 for the search king this year, but nearly six months into '08, it's the same old story for the online video sharing giant: Sustained market domination but puny revenues. The company's latest money-saving idea: let content creators sell their own ads.

That's right, professional content producers are now able to sell ads on their own branded YouTube channels, but they still have to split revenues with the video sharing giant just as before. Ad units on YouTube include display units on the page and expandable overlays that run across the bottom of YouTube videos. Giving advertisers more control over the inventory they purchase is good news, but it's hardly the revolutionary new video ad unit we've been expecting from Schmidt and company since stating Google's YouTube intentions earlier this year.

The glaring fact remains that YouTube revenues are expected to be between $90 and $200 million this year, while Google is expected to rake in $22 billion overall.

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