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Digital
YouTube launches UK-based Original Channels
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 9 October 2012
YouTube has launched 60 original channels in the UK, part of the Google-owned firm’s ‘Original Channels’ venture, which went live in the US this time last year.
The video site has teamed up with a portfolio of media owners and celebrities on its new channels, including ITN, All3Media, BBC Worldwide and Mixmag. The initiative sees YouTube, which traditionally has provided a platform and ad revenues for existing content but no investment into new material, pumping some of its own cash into content generation. In the US it was reported Google made $100 million available for the launch of its original channels there.
Commenting on the rationale behind the original channels venture, Ben McOwen Wilson, Director of YouTube EMEA, told The Guardian: “Although some [of our] partners were making successful businesses out of creating content on YouTube, it was not happening at the scale or the pace that we would love to see it happening, or as widely in terms of genre. [Original Channels] is accelerating that, jumpstarting it, to get more partners working with us to create original content for the platform”.
