YouTube beams up 'Star Trek' for long-form video
Now showing on YouTube: Star Trek.
(Credit: Google)Google's YouTube has begun testing a dramatic departure in content and advertising, adding 15 50-minute TV episodes from Star Trek, Beverly Hills 90210, and MacGyver and with prominent new ads.
"We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you," Google said on its YouTube blog on Friday.
It's an experiment in video display and advertising, too, with ads for Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Intel's Centrino chip technology showing prominently on the videos I watched. The TV shows are preceded by a 15-second pre-roll ad, and YouTube will show mid-roll and post-roll ads as well, according to the blog posting. "As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows," Google said.
The shows also feature new display possibilities that set off the ads--no doubt the "in-chrome ads" that Chief Executive Eric Schmidt referred to earlier this year when discussing the high priority of making more money from YouTube. A new "theater view" sports bright ads against an otherwise darker screen, wrapping the video in deep red faux curtains. And the "lights-out" mode retains the traditional YouTube interface, but with the darker screen and relatively bright ad.
The TV shows are all from CBS, which owns CNET News.
The content is tagged with a new film strip icon to indicate that it's different from conventional YouTube videos. The icon shows in search results, too.
Update 3:23 p.m. PDT: YouTube's long-form move has been expected for months, and now Google will begin to see how well viewers take to the idea.
Milking more money from YouTube has been a top priority for Google this year, and the new content and ads clearly are a part of that. They also show the increasing sophistication of Google's relationships with studios, which with the exception of litigant Viacom, have been warming to YouTube in some cases.
Schmidt has said the right way to pair advertising with YouTube's vast and fast-growing video collection is the "holy grail."
YouTube features 'theater mode' that lends prominence to the video and the ads.
(Credit: CNET News)
Stephen Shankland covers Google, Yahoo, search, online advertising, portals, digital photography, and related subjects. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered servers, supercomputing, open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen.
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What-lou?
It would be nice if this post and the myriad of others all over the net right now point that out and include it in their headlines.
It doesn't help that the link to youtube's blog isn't available from Japan either -- I get redirected to youtube's Japanese blog, which has no entry on the subject and no obvious way to access the American blog. http://jp.youtube.com/blog?entry=F1xABdzKby4 . I'm sure there's some way to get from there to the cited blog entry, but seriously, why do we have to take these companies seriously? What kind of arrogant global strategy is this?
I imagine a time in the future where I'll be complaining the same about universal translators -- trying to talk to a Russian in China, the device will refuse to work because it insists that the only target options are Manadarin or Cantonese.
"This video is not available in your country."
The Internet is a global resource. When a major site like YouTube considers it fair game to offer a locally restricted service, it makes Internet segregation seem a reasonable policy for any website.
YouTube are in a position of considerable influence and this attitude is irresponsible. I only hope they have longer term plans for universal access.
Luckily, it's only TV reruns at the moment....
I am an American and I approve this message. ;)
I highly doubt they have any plans to make this content available globally, and that kind of national discrimination is unforgivable. If I am wrong and they do have such intentions but other matters are getting in the way then I apologize, but that's certainly not what it looks like to me.
Truly a case of live long and profit, err prosper.
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by fleaweb
October 13, 2008 3:14 PM PDT
- Please, I'm in Canada, we're practically the 51st state anyway. Most people here are more interested in Sarah Palin than our own federal election. Considering we can get direct US cable/satellite feeds from Buffalo and Detroit and New England here in Toronto; what's the deal CBS? Sigh.
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