Advertising and Internet TV
Full-length episodes of television shows and movies are an important part of YouTube heading forward. Which means the company must be delighted to have signed a deal with UK broadcaster Channel 4 which will see 3,000 hours of content coming to the video sharing site.
YouTube and Channel 4
YouTube has for a while now been moving away from user-generated content and trying to entice broadcasters into providing content via the site. It’s had mixed success but it has now nabbed a major broadcaster in the form of Channel 4.
Channel 4 was the first UK broadcaster to launch a video on demand service, doing so in 2006. But 4oD failed to get the attention it deserved and the BBC iPlayer snatched the limelight instead. 4oD has gone through some major changes since then and now rivals the iPlayer for user experience.

The storm in a teacup which saw everyone, YouTube, Warner, and viewers, lose out when music videos were pulled from the video-sharing site is over.
Music videos are big business on YouTube. Which is why they are being moved off the site and onto their own dedicated site in the very near future.
Hulu is a brilliant service which has truly brought American television to the online masses. Part of the appeal of Hulu is the fact it’s free, with revenue coming from a purely advertising-based model. But certain parties want to change all that. Could Hulu survive the transition to a subscription-based model?
Making money on YouTube isn’t an easy venture, even for Google itself. But it’s getting easier for individual users. Now, as well as established video partners being able to monetize their efforts, producers of one-off viral videos will be able to make some money.
Online video will only truly take off when media, TV, and cable companies embrace it as an alternative to traditional TV. But for that to happen, there has to be a profit in it for them. Can Web television ever compete with traditional TV in the revenue department?