YouTube Eyes The TV

YouTube, the world’s most popular online video site, is getting ready for the day when the TV set becomes a gateway to the internet as well as the PC, but to do that the Google-owned site needs more long-form premium content.

“People are always pointing out that our focus has been on short-form content,” notes Shailesh Rao, Google’s Asia-Pacific MD of Media & Platforms.

“A short video is a great fit for the internet experience, but when you start moving that model to IP-connected TV, people have the opportunity to watch video for longer. We’ll adjust the content on the site, and the viewing experience, to match this need.”

Premium content will help shift YouTube’s strong associations with user-generated video as the site gears up to become a major distributor of professional programming, to TV screens and home theaters as well as PCs and mobile phones, in the future.

YouTube intends to remain loyal to amateur producers, Rao insists, but the video site risks becoming sidelined without long-form content in its portfolio, as the internet and TV set become increasingly entwined.

Google’s engineers have been busy working on smoothing YouTube’s extension to TV, unveiling YouTube XL, a version optimized for the big screen, as well as support for HD videos.

They are also working on a new interface called Leanback, designed to be compatible with a new video search platform, Google TV, which will make its debut in the US later this year before rolling out internationally in 2011.

Copyright controls
A concerted push for more long-form content complements these moves. The site’s once seemingly cavalier approach to illegally uploaded copyrighted material has diminished in recent years, replaced with new tools and a new approach to woo copyright owners.

YouTube structures most of its deals around a revenue share, to encourage partners to make more content available to the site, while continuing to develop an array of ad formats to help generate revenue.

Regionally, YouTube ranks among the top five most viewed sites in each of the markets where it has local versions – Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Most premium content providers remain wary of forging closer partnerships in their core markets however, for the moment at least.

YouTube's challenge
They see little to justify breaking current arrangements with traditional distribution partners such as free-to-air broadcasters and pay-TV operators, and tend to regard YouTube more as a marketing platform than alternative distribution network. The challenge for Rao and the YouTube team is to change their minds.

“Take Taiwan and Hong Kong as an example,” Rao says. “We now have relationships with all the major TV networks in the market. We want to take those partnerships to the next level and make long-form content available on our platform as well.”

This is an edited extract from a feature published in the Q2 2010 edition of The Asia Media Journal. The latest issue of The Asia Media Journal is available in full here.