Rumors and insiders have been leaking small bits of info about the changes to come at YouTube as the mega-site’s focus shifts to Premium Content. Premium Content, as in professional video, not the amateur uploads that have made YouTube its name. The latest hot rumor is that YouTube will launch Scheduled Channels (kind of like how you watch TV — time slots, set channels) with Premium Content in early 2012.
What will you be watching then on YouTube?
– One of the first moves towards this shift towards Premium Content was to acquire Next New Networks, a super-popular network of web originals ranging from personality-driven series to sketch comedy. So expect some of that.
– Another move was to supply grants, training and equipment to select YouTubers in a few different programs over the past few months so these creators could take their channels to the next level. So expect more of them.
– YouTube’s latest rumored move towards Premium Content is to develop their OWN content for YouTube. Again, per rumor, much of that energy has been focused on music programs, both pre-recorded and livestreamed, a staple of YouTube, and celebrity reality fare, also highly popular. So expect that too.
What’s still missing? Scripted series (i.e. dramas, episodic comedies). But it’s not that far off.
For those who didn’t know, for some time YouTube has actually had this listing [pictured below] of premium “SHOWS” on YouTube, both web original and TV broadcast, in drama, comedy, how-to, etc. — though it’s been hidden in the BROWSE sub-menu at the top of the homepage. (A YouTube show page listing is a privilege of being a Partner, which is an elite distinction.) Worth noting though: there used to be a category for “web originals,” which now appears to be gone –seemingly because the ultimate intention is to blur this distinction between “web original shows” and “TV original shows.”
The little tango with YouTube and scripted series revolves around the fact that YouTube has always been a video sharing site, so it revolves around people sharing the videos. It makes people do most of the promotional work. Hence, why a silly :40 second viral of a cat will come up on YouTube’s homepage but a premium web drama that won a Webby or an Emmy won’t, even though you very well might be interested in watching it… and that is because millions of people before you spent time on YouTube watching cats and toddlers-high-after-dental-visits so that is what YouTube rewards with higher rankings and promotion. You can’t get mad at YouTube for that since YouTube is entirely user-generated, which means quite frankly, it’s totally our fault.
This would change if the site shifts to Premium Content not Shared Content. YouTube would start making some decisions for you about what you should watch.
Will amateur videos disappear from YouTube? I doubt it. They’re entertaining, and most of all, they earn Google money. But there is room for both in online video. After all, the web is huge! And as technology evolves, content needs to evolve.
As full disclosure, Digital Chick TV is a YouTube Partner with a YouTube Network, Digital Chick TV Network, which is both an aggregator and a producer of original content.
DARYN
