As was rumored for some time, YouTube has started charging for content, with paid channels making their debut. The pilot scheme gives qualifying partners the opportunity to erect paywalls, but will viewers pay in the numbers needed to make this worthwhile?

Paid YouTube Channels

YouTube has rolled out its first paid content, with a pilot scheme which sees 50 channels offering subscriptions costing $0.99 per month. All offer a 14-day free trial, and there are discounts for longer subscriptions.

The pilot scheme includes channels as diverse as Jim Henson Family TV, UFC Select, and GayDirect. In the coming months YouTube is promising a wider rollout which will see partners able to set up their own paid offerings.

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For one week in May YouTube is going to (try to) be the funniest website on the planet. The Google-owned property already boasts a multitude of funny clips, but YouTube Comedy Week is something altogether more ambitious. This represents the changing face of YouTube; from a site where anything goes to one which brings together the best people in a particular genre, whether they’re famous or not.

YouTube Originals

YouTube is fighting hard to change its reputation from being an online destination full of short clips of random people (and pets) doing funny things, to something more professional, more serious, more like network television.

It’s a tough sell, but it has already managed to shake off its reputation as a place where piracy reigns supreme. And now it’s trying to straddle the line between longform and short-form, professional and user-generated.

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Google is currently carrying out a full-on assault aimed at cementing its place on iOS and Apple devices. We’ve already witnessed the Apple Maps vs. Google Maps conflict, and the latest front in this ongoing war is Capture, a new YouTube app clearly aimed at usurping the current default camera app.

YouTube Capture

YouTube Capture, which will appear simply as Capture on the homescreen of your iOS device, is designed to simplify the process of capturing, uploading, and sharing video clips recorded on mobile devices.

It’s currently only available on iOS for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but Google is already working on bringing the dedicated app to Android as well. Capture gives you multiple options in one complete app, all of which benefits YouTube, and, consequently, Google.

After recording your video clip you can label it, use enhancements such as stabilization and color correction, trim the length, and even add a soundtrack. You can then upload it to YouTube and/or share it with various social networks. All without ever having used Apple’s own camera app.

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When, on Oct. 14, Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped from a capsule hanging from the edge of space, he broke more than just the speed of sound. He also broke the record for the number of people watching a live stream on YouTube.

Felix Baumgartner

Baumgartner finally jumped from a height of 128,100 feet (2.4 km) after five years of preparing for the stunt. He became the first man to break the sound barrier, reaching a speed of 1342.8 km/h, as well as records for the highest manned balloon flight, the highest parachute jump, and the greatest freefall distance.

As reported by the Official YouTube Blog, Baumgartner also broke the record for the number of live streams on the Google-owned site, with more than 8 million people watching it happen concurrently. This is compared to the few hundred who usually watch live streams on YouTube.

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A short video uploaded to YouTube, as well as several other video sites on the Internet, has sparked a major crisis. But should a negative reaction to a video online ever justify its removal by Google and other denizens of the Web?

Innocence Of Muslims Video

The Innocence Of Muslims video has acted as a powder keg igniting violent protests across the Middle East. Four American diplomats, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, were killed in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi.

The 14-minute clip, which is taken from a longer film, is clearly offensive to Muslims with its mocking depiction of the Prophet Mohammad. Most right-thinking people wish the video had never seen the light of day, but now that’s it out there on the Internet there’s a moral question over how to proceed.

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YouTube is testing what it’s labeled ‘Moodwall’ on random users of the online video site. As its name suggests Moodwall makes recommendations on the feelings associated with videos. Users aren’t happy with the fledgling feature.

YouTube Surfing

Most of us invariably head to YouTube for a specific reason. We’ll have a subject matter in mind that we want to find and watch a video about. But once you’re on YouTube and have watched the video(s) you were seeking out you’ll then likely be drawn to click on more videos, view a channel, or browse a whole category.

This is of benefit to YouTube for obvious reasons – more videos watched means more ads seen – and it has sought to offer up recommendations to keep users clicking and watching. Up to now these efforts have been mainly based on search terms, but Moodwall looks to be operate differently.

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YouTube is now the largest depository of Creative Commons videos that are free to be reused or remixed for free by anyone with the desire to do so. This places it alongside Flickr, which is currently number one for CC photographs.

YouTube CC Video Library

This time last year saw YouTube unveil the Creative Commons video library, accessible right from within the YouTube Video Editor. At the time YouTube announced 10,000 videos were on offer under the CC BY license which allows anyone to reuse or remix a video as long as they give credit.

The library was conceived as being “ever-expanding,” and ordinary users were invited to also label their videos with the CC By license. This was alongside organizations such as C-SPAN, Al Jazeera, and Voice of America. This move now looks to have paid off in a big way.

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