YouTube and RTL Nederland have signed an agreement to bring the daily soap Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (Good Times, Bad Times) to the online video portal. New full length episodes will become available on a daily basis immediately after airing on RTL4 and are free to view.
Each episode will be available in its entirety and will contain both pre-roll and mid-roll advertising spots during the existing ad breaks. Unilever is the first advertiser with Lipton tea. The programme will remain available for a period of three weeks.
The soap will get its own ‘channel’ on YouTube. As an added gimmick, a three-minute preview of tonight’s episode will be shown every day. Also, viewers can choose their favourite all-time episode of the series. Every week another ‘classic’ will be shown online.
At the moment, RTL offers a catch-up service on cable requiring a €0.99 payment per episode. On the web, it is already available free to view on the dedicated GTST website.
Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden is the most popular daily soap in the country, produced by Endemol. An average of 1.3 million viewers tune in each day at 8pm to watch the programme.
