YouTube: Now With More Channels

 

ADOTAS – Six years ago, when you thought of online video, chances are that you thought of YouTube.

 

But the grainy moving images of skateboarding tricks, spoof music videos and cats chasing laser pointers were quickly edged out of the way by premium content from competing online video providers. Netflix, Hulu and other media company-approved outlets started showcasing full-length movies and televisions series online — and that was a game changer.

YouTube is now taking steps to level the playing field once again and move its site to the center of the online video world. The changes were outlined in two rare blog posts from YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar, posted just hours apart from one another on Monday, May 9. The posts detailed YouTube’s plans to “bring more of the video you love to YouTube.”

In one of the posts, Kamangar revealed YouTube’s strategy for introducing rental movies to its platform. Currently, YouTube offers hundreds of free movies and studio-approved trailers and clips from feature films.

But the new arrangement will offer more program options for rent at “industry standard pricing” – which is in the $2.99 per rental range. Feature movies are available at the http://www.youtube.com/movies channel, with new movies being added each week. Movie pages will feature exclusive YouTube extras as well as embedded Rotten Tomatoes reviews to enhance the viewer’s experience.

Major studios including NBC Universal, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers will provide 3,000 additional titles available for rent on YouTube. Some of the initial titles are “Goodfellas,” “Inception,” “Little Fockers,” “Despicable Me,” “The King’s Speech” and “Caddy Shack.”

Disney, Fox and Paramount declined to have their content included, mainly due to piracy concerns. In addition, Paramount’s parent company Viacom is currently in legal disputes with YouTube.

The new rental platform was tested out last year in a partnership with the Sundance Film Festival. First, viewers could rent Sundance Film festival entries and Sundance even premiered a full-length movie “A Day in the Life” on YouTube. The film was composed of scenes from a single day shot by YouTube viewers around the world.

Kalamanger made it clear that their new feature film additions won’t push aside their bread and butter — user-created content.

The other post focused on YouTube’s commitment to encouraging and fostering this type of content. YouTube partners, those who are featured content producers, number in the 20,000+ range. Individually, many of them are garnering audiences that rival major television shows.

Kamangar explained that YouTube will be investing heavily in supporting original content creation to keep these partners motivated and provide new content for viewers. Although the details were unclear as to how much would be invested, he pointed to two existing programs at the focus of the investment efforts.
•YouTube NextUp – This program focused on 25 promising YouTube creators selected from across the country. They were given a $35,000 advance each to further their YouTube careers. The recipients received a trip to New York City to attend the first-ever YouTube Creator Camp, and personalized training on their channel, brand and content development. Once their program was complete they were promoted globally across the platform.
•YouTube Creators Institute – YouTube partnered with the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and Columbia College Chicago’s Television Department to help 10 original content producers become more skilled in video production. The producers attended one of the two schools to study professional video production in an academic environment.

The producers from the first round of both programs are now being featured on YouTube. YouTube plans to build on this success by offering more resources for creators.

This is all in what seems to be a coordinated, all-out effort to make YouTube the premier destination for online video content of all types.

Of course, only time (and the Internet) will tell.