If you've been following The Digital Home, you know that I said on numerous occasions that Google needed to bring professional content to YouTube.
Well, it has done just that.
Google announced last week that YouTube will now feature television shows and films from Crackle, CBS (publisher of CNET News), MGM, Lionsgate, Starz, and others. The company claims there are now thousands of shows and hundreds of films available on the site. The videos feature pre-roll ads, as well as in-stream commercials, similar to Hulu. All the content is currently limited to U.S. viewers, but Google hopes to open it up to international viewers in the future.
Though Google has dabbled in professional content via partnerships with Seth MacFarlane and film studios in the past, this is the first meaningful step it has taken to make YouTube more reliant upon professional content. It's about time.
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Google and Universal Music Group last week announced Vevo, a music video site that will feature Universal's music videos running on YouTube technology. I use YouTube as my primary source of watching music videos, and I'm not convinced that I, personally, need a Vevo-like site in my life.
That doesn't mean there isn't room for a site like this. Vevo could still become a great site--but not if it just streams music videos. Here are five features that I'd like to see on Vevo at launch:
1. High-quality video Whenever you try to watch music videos on sites other than MTV.com, the video quality is usually poor. But if Vevo offers outstanding video quality, it will certainly make pople notice. If you're going to a site to watch music videos, wouldn't you expect them to look good? Yeah, me too.
2. An awesome community I love reading comments on YouTube. Popular music videos have hundreds, if not thousands, of comments from both fans and haters alike who want everyone to know their opinions. Vevo needs a community like that to be successful. Watching music videos is fine, but if Vevo really wants to keep people coming back, allowing them to comment is a must. There's a reason why most sites allow users to post comments; they keep people interested in content they've already consumed. That's what Vevo needs.
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I was surfing around the Web today and didn't have to go far to find a quick column by Matt Asay over on CNET's "Open Road" discussing YouTube and Hulu.
In a piece entitled, "Quality pays: Hulu trumping YouTube," Asay makes the point that because of Hulu's $12 million profit, Google needs to do more with YouTube. Asay believes that Google "needs to show equal care for the [entertainment] industry's IP" and "improve quality."
Generalizations aside, I need to disagree with my colleague on what YouTube should do. Asay claims that YouTube shouldn't become Hulu, but I think that's plain wrong. Hulu is a success today not because it has high-quality programming or respects intellectual property. Hulu is a success today because all the content contained on the site is controlled and demographic data is readily available.
Rest assured that no matter how much money Google is losing on YouTube, it's well worth the cost. No matter what we may think about YouTube and its obvious issues, we can't lose sight of the fact that without all that copyrighted material, YouTube wouldn't be half as popular as it is today and whether Google wants to admit it or not, it needs those clips on there.
It's no longer a question of whether user-generated video is important -- it is -- or if it should be kept on YouTube. User-generated video is how YouTube can bring people to the site and allow it to funnel those people to professional content that Google can monetize. User-generated video isn't the key to making money, it's the professional video that matters most to advertisers.
... Read moreUser-generated video is great, but there aren't any opportunities for making money, which makes it useless to video services. Find out why in my latest video.
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NBC may launch a new SNL video site? Let's hope it never happens..
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And as always, drop me a line or follow me on Twitter!
Hulu's success has surprised me somewhat and in today's video, I tell you exactly why..
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Video is the next big thing on the Web, and more and more organizations are embracing it as the way to provide an equal experience for Web surfers who don't necessarily have the time to watch television during the day.
But for all the video services, and there are many, Hulu easily stands above the rest and provides us with the best programming and experience. Call me a cynic, but watching the junk on YouTube or the ridiculous garbage on Funny or Die just doesn't do it for me. Instead, I prefer to enjoy professional programming in a way that has never been allowed before.
But the beauty of Hulu goes far beyond programming. Hulu is real proof that the entertainment industry is slowly coming around to the idea of embracing the Web and not being afraid of it, and proves a point I've been making all along: most people are honest and are more than willing to do the right thing to enjoy their favorite shows.
Hulu is the first example of how to overcome the debilitating crossroads that we're now standing in and has shown with each passing day that where there's great programming and a free service, people will flock.
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