Could YouTube be joining NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CW and other television networks? The Wall Street Journal is reporting an enormous overhaul for YouTube that will structure the website as a hybrid website-TV network. In an effort to make the website more like a television network and less like a warehouse for arbitrary, user-generated videos, YouTube is entering a brand new market for them. Google is working on a complete overhaul of YouTube in an effort to corner the market for televisions that allow consumers to watch online videos in their living rooms; in a manner much like Television networks have for decades. YouTube is preparing to compete with broadcast and cable television, a goal that revolves around getting users to stay on the website for longer periods of time, to in turn persuade advertisers that it will be an effective means by which to reach consumers.
The site is planning a complete redesign of its home page to support a new platform for the site: a set of “channels” revolving around topics much like contemporary television service i.e arts, history, reality, and sports. There will be approximately 20 of these channels each featuring professionally produced original programming each week. What YouTube must first obtain is content capable of producing regular viewers tuning in week after week, just as viewers do for their favorite shows featured on regular television. Of course YouTube will produce additional channels for content already on the site such as Rebecca Black’s “Friday, Friday” as well as the current infinite hours of pre existing material containing everything from instructional videos to animals and babies caught on tape doing funny things. Reportedly YouTube is prepared to spend upwards of $100 million to commission this original content created exclusively for their site.
These impending alterations are still a bit of a gamble by the world’s single most-popular video website as they begin to push in an entirely new direction for the company. Between the haphazard genre of user-generated content and the much pricier and regulatory grounds of full-fledged TV shows, Google is hoping to fill a new niche market of professionally produced original internet videos in hopes it will cultivate a group of loyal viewers.
Perhaps the biggest part of this upgrade will be the construction of these channels, which will soon make up YouTube’s homepage. Of course some of these channels will be dedicated to supporting the new original programming that will be featured on the website, while others will simply group together similar videos that are already available on the site. The Wall Street Journal says that “YouTube has been in talks with all the big Hollywood talent agencies,” no doubt in an effort to find new talent and partners with the name recognition and reputation they will require to effectively launch the new channels. Though working on a website show to an actor would typically be parallel to a Broadway star acting in a community theater production, this new direction in web production as well as this project has qualified that standard. Now, under the right terms that is no longer the case. Currently many actors, directors and writers have all discovered that though this medium lacks a similar market, they can often times be more creative and controversial on the web, as they are capable of trying things they could never get approved by a major studio. Similarly, while comedy currently certainly rules the internet medium, projects like this are serving only to open the platform and it is now ready to receive more dramas, documentaries, reality shows and educational programming.
When it comes down to it, YouTube’s goal is to simply increase the amount of time the average user spends on the website. However, as they plan to do this through the addition of full-length TV style shows and movies, they may run into a problem. Many people watch three or more hours of TV a night, but few would spend this kind of time online, nor is internet media a typically multi-viewer platform. This option would be far from mainstream right off the bat, as only a small portion of homes are set up to view online media in a group setting and in their living rooms. However, as more and more people obtain reliable and inexpensive access to streaming videos, and the quality of the content provided increases, the possibility that YouTube could transform into a viable alternative to network TV will too. All that is left to do is to convince advertisers, and the market should grow. With the steady growth of advertising dollars being spent on social media and in internet platforms YouTube may just be creating the new media frontier.
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