YouTube takes on TV with launch of new 'channels'

THE VIDEO website YouTube is preparing to take on traditional TV stations by launching more than a dozen new "channels" featuring scheduled programming and content from providers including Hollywood studios and other major brands.
 
According to the Wall Street Journal the Google-owned site is finalising contracts for the channels, which it hopes will be ready by the end of November ahead of a launch in early 2012.
 
The paper says that the launch of the channels is part of YouTube's efforts to "to reposition the web video juggernaut as a more formidable competitor to TV".
 
YouTube, which has earned a reputation for being somewhat tight-fisted, appears to have loosened the purse strings for the new venture and is said to be paying some of the content providers millions of dollars. Once the parent company Google has recouped its initial outlay the ad revenue will be split between YouTube and the content provider.
 
Apart from laying down a challenge to traditional TV the plan may also be to generate more ad revenue for the site. Although YouTube dominates online video it fails to deliver much in the way of advertising. And although many people see that as a blessing, it means that it makes less money than it might.
 
New figures out in the US last week showed that around 100 million more people watched videos on YouTube than the second most popular video sharing site, Vevo. However, the site that ran the most ads was Hulu, which was ranked ninth and had just 26 million viewers, a fraction of the 162 million who watched videos on Google-owned sites (including YouTube).
 
The themes of the new channels, thought to include fashion, sport and films, would be more attractive to advertisers.
 
Although YouTube already has 'channels', which contain the videos uploaded by an individual user and any clips that they have listed as favourites, the new version will feature rolling content and schedules, so that viewers can tune in at certain times to watch events. ·