March 30, 2009 by James Oliver
YouTube is moving further and further away from its homemade roots with the news that the Disney corporation will be providing the site with ‘short-form’ content from two of its major networks, ESPN and ABC. In ESPN’s case, ‘short form’ content will essentially mean sports highlights, in ABC’s case it will mainly but not exclusively consist of news bulletins.
This is the latest stage of a move by YouTube away from the original UGC (user generated content) focus of the website. Such content has proved hard to make a profit from as the quality is variable and predicting demand for videos in advance is almost impossible. The broadcast of traditional programming has proved both popular and marketable, with content like old episodes of McGyver and Beverley Hills 90210 proving a boon for the coffers of both YouTube and the rights holders.
It’s all part of the process of turning YouTube into more of a corporate entity that’s easier to present to advertisers as a conventional investment. There’s no question of phasing out the UGC completely though the focus is definitely changing.
According to YouTube, Disney will retain most of the proceeds from any advertising.
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