YouTube is finalising contracts for the first of more than a dozen ‘channels’ featuring regularly scheduled content on broad themes such as fashion and sports, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
YouTube has requested some content for the channels within the next 60 days, according to people familiar with the situation, as it considers a launch in early 2012.
“We don’t comment on rumour or speculation,” a Google spokesperson said, to no one’s surprise. However, since the beginning of the year, YouTube has been trying to beef up its professionally produced content with the introduction of YouTube Live TV and a limited number of deals for feature-length videos. The video site has also commissioned producer to make content especially for YouTube.
Broadband TV Views: At the moment, movies and TV series are mainly distributed by sites such as Hulu, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon and Blockbuster streaming. While YouTube may be by far the best watched video site, it is still dominated by ‘silly videos’, despite earlier deals with the BBC and Channel 4.
Google, YouTube’s owner, has been unsuccessful in trying to establish Google TV as a serious competitor to regular broadcast TV and beefing up the content in YouTube might be another way of getting there.
Google is also among the bidders for Hulu, along with Dish Network, who recently launched the new Blockbuster Movie Pass service.
