7:16pm EDT, Thu Sep 2

YouTube Aims to Be TV Juggernaut

By: The Online Reporter
Publish Date: January 23, 2009

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— Nintendo, Sony Already On Board — No PC Required, No Audience Guaranteed — New Model Lets Partners Sell Own Ads YouTube is moving past desktop, laptop and mobile screens and is aiming professionally produced content at the TV screen for viewers to watch. It appears to want to be the service that delivers TV shows, movies and music video instead of the pay TV companies. It has released the beta version of YouTube for Television and will use the Net to deliver video content to Internet-connected devices — Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PS3 are the only ones so far in the beta — and give a "dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface" that has been designed specifically for the TV set. YouTube is also developing an advertising scheme that allows studios and networks to sell their own advertising on branded YouTube channels. This could mean some major deals if these channels also find their way to the TV screen. The beta test on the PS3 and Wii game consoles will happen in 22 countries and 12 languages. Going TV Friendly YouTube is trying to make itself more TV friendly by adding features like an auto-play option that shows related video clips in sequence without any interaction from the user. While small features like that and large text may improve some of the interaction and video selection, it remains to be seen if anyone will watch it. Traditional TV features almost entirely professional- quality content, which is tough to beat with animal videos and sports injuries. What could save YouTube for Television is its library of music videos. If those can be delivered with high-quality video and sound, YouTube will be filling a hole in current TV programming. If YouTube makes a TV "station" that plays the most popular music videos or music videos of certain categories using the auto-play option, it could develop a set of stations that users watch in a manner similar to traditional broadcast TV. YouTube's journey to the boob tube began in the first half of 2007 through a deal with Apple TV. After Apple's start, Sony, HP, Panasonic, TiVo and Verismo also jumped on the bandwagon with the addition of new APIs in March 2008. These APIs are part of the company's "on any screen, anytime" motto. YouTube has also made its way to mobiles, with the iPhone even getting a special version of the site, making that "any screen" part a bigger deal. What's left to see is if anyone will watch. Content Is a Drawback Giving the service a brief run through, the content is somewhat lacking right now when thinking of TV. There are few full-length shows and it seems to only host parts of movies so far. There are some shows and movies that can be seen in full, but these tend to be movies that are in the public domain. Music videos, however, are easy to find and watch and have a much better quality than expected from YouTube. Even when using the full- screen feature, the content still looks professionally done. While these music videos don't look as good the content coming from the cable box, there were never any music videos playing when using the Wii YouTube currently has deals with MGM, CBS Home Video, Sony Pictures Television and a host of independent content producers. If they could start moving some of this content to the TV through the YouTube for Television service, it would be an amazing start. It would also be a big step in giving Hulu a run for its money in terms of advertising. An Initial Run-Through The interface is smooth, clean and easy to navigate — we've only tested this on the Wii. The only problem so far is that the video's information and related content shows up in a window over the video being watched, and the video itself often skips at this point. We tried out the service out with "The Omega Man," the 1971 film starring Charlton Heston, on both a Wii and a PC — each connected to the same Wi-Fi router. The Wii was able to load, play and share the video faster than the PC. This is most likely due to the ads that accompanied the PC version of the Web site. The buttons are clear and easy to understand, and the only thing that ever looked out of focus was the YouTube logo at the top left of the screen. The full screen keeps a good quality and the buttons on the pop-up menu get larger when displayed in full screen, which helps user navigation. The beta lacks a bar to let the user know how much of the video has loaded but does give the option of fast-forwarding and rewinding. Overall it was easy to use and navigate. Established channels on the main page and premium content would make the service better, but for a beta it's a good thing that content is really the major drawback. The Money Maker Google has planned for a while to better monetize its YouTube service, but it's had trouble rounding up partners until now. YouTube is now setting itself up to allow major partners to display their own ads on the site, both to entice more premium content and to make amends with studios and producers it has feuded with over copyright infringements. TechCrunch reported that YouTube already allows a handful of partners, CBS for one, to sell their own ads in videos on their official channels and on any video caught by YouTube's copyright police, called Content ID. Ars Technica was told by a YouTube spokesperson that YouTube will begin expanding this service as early as March. The spokesperson also said YouTube will "work with partners on a case-by-case basis to see whether this option makes sense for them and make those decisions accordingly." Opening up these services and giving partners the ability to advertise against a TV screen might help mend some fences with companies like Warner and Viacom. YouTube has also expanded its click-to-buy program, which will help these partners but probably won't find its way to YouTube for Television. Allowing major partners to bring their own ads and eventually expanding advertising to a physical TV screen will be big plusses in YouTube's actually generating capital. Now what's left to see is if it can bring in these advertisers and partners and eventually get them to monetize a greater percentage of YouTube content.