Disney Media Networks have announced an agreement which will include the launch of ad supported YouTube channels featuring professionally edited short-form content from ESPN and the Disney /ABC and ESPN channels. ESPN will be the first to be launched in mid April followed by Disney and ABC in early May.

As part of the agreement Disney Media Network will have control over display ad content and will receive generated advertising revenue.

“This deal provides us with the opportunity to reach a broader online audience, to experiment with different monetization models and to extend the reach of our advertisers within branded environments that they most desire,” said Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks, and president, Disney/ABC Television Group. “We look forward to working together with YouTube to reach their vast community with our incredible portfolio of high-quality, short-form content to better serve consumers and advertisers.”

“We are thrilled to welcome ABC and ESPN into our global content network of premium partners,” said David Eun, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Google. “More and more studios and networks are realizing the power of YouTube to reach a huge and engaged audience. Our diverse collection of ad products, Content ID tools and sophisticated online analytics, provide studios like ABC with innovative monetization options, more control over their online content and granular insight into how audiences are interacting with their videos.”

Article by Creative SEO UK

Google’s immense popularity has resulted in Google News having an industry leading presence in the News Industry. In a shock move to promote “Citizen” Reporters, Google owned YouTube launches a YouTube Reporters’ Centre encouraging members of the public to become active Journalists. What impact will this have on the Newspaper and News Industry and is this the beginning of the end for traditional journalism?

Google News aggregates news stories from all over the world, stories are published within minutes making Google News an extremely powerful channel for news and communication. One of Google News’ unique properties is that news stories can be from leading news agencies or public blogs. Google actively promotes important news content from any source and does not discriminate from user to user. As long as the story is unique and important Google will actively promote, index and list.

YouTube have created the YouTube Reporters’ Centre for one unique reason, to actively help and promote the reporting of news from around the world by members of the public. The centre offers help and advice including videos from internationally renowned journalists including CBS’ Katie Couric, New York Times’ Nick Kristof and legendary Watergate reporter Bob Woodward.
The concept of real news stories from real members of the public from all around the world does have its appeal. The potential network alone would be huge and the actual stories would not be governed by political spin or government censorship. If this technology was to grow in popularity the potential political waves could be huge. Members of the public from all over the world could provide news stories based on real life experiences, but there is a problem. News agencies have always taken a potentially impartial view of a News story, effectively reporting both sides without bias or judgement. Will public based news stories be opinion based and potentially not offer an impartial overview of the story itself?

News agencies have nothing to fear from this new technology, if “Citizen” based reporting was to increase in popularity news agencies could only benefit from the growth. Although the role of the news agency would change, more time would be spent aggregating news stories and piecing together different reports from individual reporters on the same news topic. Effectively editing “Citizen” based news to provide a more appealing and relevant story to the news agency users.

Citizen based reporting offers an exciting opportunity for the news industry to evolve and grow with the increased popularity of the internet. What the future holds has yet to be written, but with Google’s immense power and exposure “Citizen” based reporting is sure to grow in popularity.

Article by Creative SEO

Wide spread rumours have now been confirmed by two sources close to Google, YouTube is planning a complete redesign which will include a clear separation of Premium and User-posted content.
YouTube has been known primarily for its User-posted content and recently has come under attack from The Performing Rights Society (PRS) for allowing users to publish and watch premium music videos. PRS insisted that Google owned YouTube pay a much higher licence fee to counter the increase in music video popularity. In a shock move, YouTube refused the deal and removed all of the offending content. The hardest hit from this decision was the music industry itself; YouTube was a powerful marketing tool for promoting and developing an artist’s brand and this resource was no longer available. The up and coming redesign of YouTube is set to address these issues and offer an even wider choice of Premium content. Is this a result of the recent PRS challenge or is this purely part of YouTube’s ongoing development?


With the launch of the iPhone, Google Android and Blackberry, mobile streaming content has become big business and YouTube is one of the first to be taking this to the next level. If the rumours are correct, Premium content will be available through a registered account with YouTube, streaming directly to a mobile phone. This could potentially revolutionise YouTube and guarantee its continued growth and success over the coming years.


According to two sources close to Google the new design will see a change in the layout of the current site navigation. Users are currently directed to “Videos”, “Channels” and “Community” categories. The new design will include a tabbed interface with clearly defined sections including Premium Content. The new design will feature 4 main tabs: Movies, Shows, Music and Videos. The first three tabs will display premium shows, clips and movies from the Google network and studio partners. The Video Tab will display User-posted content and amateur video. Advertising revenue will be generated from in-Video Advertising.


“They’re putting up walls between all the UGC stuff, which will live within the video channel,…and the brand safe content,” said one senior agency exec who was briefed on YouTube’s plans.
YouTube will also feature a redesigned video player. The new interface is said to resemble Hulu. Hulu is the NBCU owned video portal that overwhelming success has seen massive levels of growth since its launch just over a year ago. Like Hulu, users will be able to dim the content around the video player to allow a more concentrated user experience.


Amazingly the planned launch date for this major YouTube update is 16th April 2009. Will this be the death of YouTube or will it usher in a new era of mobile video accessibility? Die hard YouTube users are not happy with the prospect of change and are worried that YouTube will become too corporate. All we can do is wait and hope that YouTube maintains its individuality and continues to offer a valuable user experience.


Writen by Creative SEO, Search Engine Marketing Agency

PRS, The Performing Rights Society for Music has long been in the eye of controversy in the UK. There squeaky clean image has been tarnished with allegations of perusing licensing fees from small businesses who’s 2-3 staff are listening to the radio in non public areas. It’s understandable that with the down turn in CD sales and the issues music piracy, PRS need to enforce the collection of licensing fees to reimburse to the performers and support new music. Youtube is the latest casualty with PRS proposing an increase in the cost of fees after the expiry of YouTube’s current contract. The costs are so high that YouTube would be paying more than the revenue achieved on the site through advertising. Youtube wanted to justify the costs and track exactly which videos were played using their video ID system. It has also been noted that PRS would not identify which artists and songs are covered by the licence which has obstructed this proposal.
“We value the creativity of musicians and song writers and have worked hard with rights-holders to generate significant online revenue for them and to respect copyright,” said parent company Google.
“But PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our license than before. The costs are simply prohibitive for us – under PRS’s proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback.”
Google is still negotiating with PRS but until an agreement is made videos from artists on EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony BMG will disappear from the UK version of YouTube.
Patrick Walker, director of video partnerships on YouTube said that music videos are some of the most popular and important content on YouTube.
“This is about long-term viability,” he said. “If the next Arctic Monkeys is going to surface we need to get this to work. It’s in the interest of the music industry – we’re not just doing this for us. The record industry needs a new business models so it’s kind of a shame that this has happened. But sometimes you have to step back to step forwards.”
PRS have claimed that YouTubes announcement came without warning and with no consultation.
“We were shocked and disappointed to receive a call late this afternoon informing us of Google’s drastic action,” said PRS chief executive Steve Porter. “… which we believe only punishes British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent.”
In an attempt to combat the fury and anger of YouTube users PRS emphasised that it did not ask YouTube to remove the videos and “urges them to reconsider their decision as a matter of urgency”.