14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube has established itself as the number one online video site with a big lead in most parts of the world but it's still struggling to generate more revenue in order to become profitable. One way of achieving this is with professional content, which attracts more advertising money. It has been taking some big steps towards this and now has scored a major deal with the British TV broadcaster Channel 4, which will make all of its content available on the Google site as a “catch-up” program.
“We know that the YouTube community is enthusiastic about full-length programming on the site, and we’ve been working hard to create the right environment for more broadcasters to make their content available with the right branding, the right advertising formats and the right level of control over advertising sales. This partnership demonstrates our commitment to bringing an even greater range of content to YouTube and we look forward to other similar agreements to come,” Patrick Walker, YouTube’s director of Partnerships, said.
Channel 4 already has a video-on-demand program called 4oD but it looks like it's realizing that the exposure it would get on YouTube would be far greater than anything it could achieve on its own. The company's 4oD program allows users to view any Channel 4 original content for up to 30 days after it has aired in order to catch up to anything they may have missed. The same content will be available on YouTube, around 3,000 hours’ worth of content at any given time, and for the same period.
Channel 4 will take advantage of YouTube's new partnership programs and will have a fully customized website hosted on the Google video site. The broadcaster will also be able to sell its own advertising for its content and apparently for other content on YouTube as well. A revenue split on the advertising money hasn't been revealed but YouTube should be taking no less than 30 percent. The content, which will only be available to UK users, will start showing up on the site in the coming months and should all be available by early 2010.