CBS has partnered with YouTube, the Google owned online video phenomenon, to broadcast some of the companies television shows online. The official announcement states that the selection of shows will be limited for the time being, but is expected to expand in the near future.
YouTube has developed a new “Theater View” software format that allows for larger high quality images, perfect to show CBS’s feature presentations on the network. According to technewsworld.com, the CBS shows will be monetized with commercial advertising, which is certainly no radical departure from what users are used to on television, but represents a major change in YouTube policy.
So far, YouTube has resisted the temptation to place advertisements within the content of user generated videos. Since the company was purchased by Google two years ago, they have been slowly experimenting with contextual based advertising, and occasional bottom of the screen ads that can be clicked away.
But the use of regular, television style commercials amid its programming is something completely new to YouTube, and there is a great deal of skepticism that loyal YouTube viewers will accept the same type of ads they’ve become accustomed to on TV.
And the deal with CBS also raises a few other important questions. For example, will YouTube viewers be comfortable with slick, network produced programs right alongside raw (and sometimes downright goofy) user generated videos? One thing is for certain: the partnership with CBS will change the “viewer experience” of YouTube as we know it.
YouTube is quick to point out that the television-style commercial advertisements used during CBS programming will not be transferred over to user generated content. In other words, YouTube is not planning to insert commercials in the middle of your home videos from last year’s vacation — at least not yet.
Of course, CBS programs aren’t exactly new to YouTube. Users have been illegally posting shows on the site for years, and CBS (along with the other major broadcasters) have worked diligently to minimize this illegal activity, and have removed their intellectual property from the site as much as possible. But with a web site as huge and popular as YouTube, it is virtually impossible to control every video that is uploaded, and see to it that copyrights and intellectual property rights are not violated.
YouTube has been growing steadily over the last three years. The site is now reportedly the third most visited location online, garnering more than 200 million unique views every month.
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