YouTube makes its play in Europe to become a mainstream TV channel provider. The UK has been selected for piloting a series of special YouTube channels, with the country’s leading TV production houses commissioned to create the programming. News provider ITN, and entertainment creators Maverick Television and Hat Trick Productions are a few of those lining-up the initial investments. It’s a new marketing approach for YouTube as a media property and one that offers new marketing approaches for brands looking to use TV on the web and YouTube in particular. For YouTube’s parent, Google, this is also a fundamental shift into content creation and broadcasting.
YouTube is expected to launch “tens of channels” of original content, which will also be drawn from suppliers outside of TV production, such as advertising agencies and publishers.
The independent channels are understood to be agreeing final terms with YouTube before securing up to £500,000 of investment to launch and manage channels for the next 12 months.
The move is marks the latest move from traditional broadcast to TV on the web and YouTube is hoping the new marketing approaches will recoup investment via advertising commission.
The latest Deals are expected to be concluded by late August, with YouTube’s first Original Channels slated to go live towards the end of the year.
The deals will see a number of channels on YouTube, including a a Jamie Oliver cookery channel along with comedy and sports channels.