Google Reportedly Betting Big On YouTube Channels

The reports of YouTube undergoing a major revamp soon have been floating around for sometime now. But yesterday’s story by Wall Street Journal gives us a clearer picture of the scale of the change that YouTube would actually go through and the kind of impact it could have on the way we watch TV.

The highlight of the story is the possible introduction of YouTube Channels which would broadcast premium content that would be targeted to the TV audience. The channels could be in all major segments like news, sports, entertainment etc and Google is reportedly spending $100 million to create the content for these channels.

This would be an interesting move because YouTube has always been perceived as more of a user-generated content generation. Almost all the videos on the site are randomly uploaded by users that include businesses and organizations. So, now, Google taking over the content generation for a part of the site could help position YouTube in a different way to the advertisers thereby bringing in more revenue.

YouTube wants to collaborate with the big guys to create premium content. According to WSJ, it has begun talks with Hollywood talent agencies like Creative Artists Agency and William Morris Endeavor to get their clients on board. There were reports earlier of some celebrities signing up to have their own content channels on YouTube.

Overall, it’ll be interesting to see how these channels perform. Organized video creation and distribution is not something YouTube is known for, so we’ll have to see how the audience reacts to it and how it impacts YouTube’s identity in the long term. I hope it’s for the good.