Thursday, April 7, 2011

YouTube Evolves

Image representing YouTube as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google will Revamp YouTube With 'Channels':
The site is planning a series of changes to its home page to highlight sets of 'channels' around topics such as arts and sports. About 20 or so of those channels will feature several hours of professionally produced original programming a week, some of these people said. Additional channels would be assembled from content already on the site.

It is planning to spend as much as $100 million to commission low-cost content designed exclusively for the Web, people familiar with the matter said.

The pending changes are a big bet by the world's most-popular video site to push in a new direction. Between the Wild West of user-generated content and the pricier precincts of full-blown TV shows, Google is hoping to carve out a niche of original, professionally produced Web videos that it hopes will cultivate loyal viewers.
This promises to be an interesting development in the way that video is delivered. I can't help but wonder what impact it will have on the big media companies. I suspect that smaller, more local media will be better able to get their foot in the door. That in turn will erode the market share of the big companies.

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