YouTube is expanding its Original Channels initiative, under which it provides funding for producers, brands and individuals to help them launch high-quality channels of original videos on the service.
60 new channels were announced yesterday including 50 in Europe, following more than 100 that rolled out in the US in the year since the scheme was launched.
Among the new channels are some music ones – Mixmag TV and Diagonal TV’s ‘The Best Of’ – as well as channels from well-known TV brands like BBC Worldwide, All3Media, ITN, Zodiak Media Company and Jamie Oliver.
As we reported yesterday, in the US Jay-Z also has his own YouTube lifestyle channel. All the new channels will be available globally across various devices.
Yesterday, Google’s VP and global head of content Robert Kyncl gave a strutting keynote at the MIPCOM TV conference in Cannes, telling the industry why it should work with YouTube (by extension, you can apply this to music).
“Audiences are rapidly changing, and if you want to keep up with them, you have to programme on YouTube,” said Kyncl. He also said that YouTube’s advertising strategy, including its skippable ads – is paying off for partners – again, also relevant for music.
“When advertisers pay only when ads are watched, and when viewers are watching only the ads that they care about, advertisers pay more. And they don’t mind. That means that content creators are making more. Everybody wins… Our system is starting to work… We are making as much revenue per hour as ads on cable TV.”
