YouTube is looking to start a number of celebrity-backed channels packed with original content. Maybe that’s why Google is buying Next New Networks, which specializes in doing something very similar, just without the celebrities.

The Power Of Celebrity

Oh to be a celebrity. You get paid a fortune to do whatever it is you do, often a natural talent; you have millions of adoring fans who’ll do (quite literally) anything for you; you get invited to parties and premieres purely because of who you are.

Celebrities have an insane amount of power, which is why they’re so in demand. And it isn’t just old media that wants celebrities involved in their operations, as Google also wants them for YouTube. And is willing to pay an absolute fortune to secure their services.

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In one of the most bizarre stories I have heard in a long time, a YouTube prankster has been arrested on child sex abuse charges for manipulating and uploading a video of him singing a song to a class of first-graders. Absolute madness.

YouTube Prank Gone Wrong

Evan Emory is a singer-songwriter and part-time comedian who had an idea for a YouTube video he thought would be funny and could become a hit. Instead, it has led to him being arrested on child sex abuse charges and facing up to 20 years in prison.

Emory gained permission to perform the child-friendly Lunch Lady Song to a class of first-graders in Muskegon, Michigan. Which he duly did. The kids were filmed reacting with delight to the song. When the classroom emptied, Emory performed a different song with explicit lyrics. The two were then spliced together at a later date so that it looked as though the kids had been present for the second song.

The video was uploaded to YouTube (since deleted) where it became an underground hit. Two days later and Emory found himself arrested and treated like a pedophile.

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Google looks set to acquire Next New Networks, home of Auto-Tune The News, amongst others. Its reason for doing so? To gain more traction in the original content sector.

YouTube Content

YouTube loves random videos of cats playing with boxes and dogs running on treadmills, it really does. But what it loves even more is original content, both the kind that has been created purely for the Web and the kind that has been created for TV and repackaged for the Web.

Since Google acquired YouTube it has been trying to up the levels of original content, because that is what the company can advertise against. Its Partner program is already quite strong, with some of the chosen few making a living from their positions, but everything can be improved.

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Who needs boring football when the adverts shown during gaps in play are so much more interesting? OK, so not everyone thinks like that, but a fair proportion do. And those people will love YouTube’s new contest, which is ultimately designed to promote online video advertising.

Super Bowl Commercials 2011

The commercials which run in the advertising breaks during the Super Bowl are now just as big a part of the tradition as the actual game is. In fact, many people are more interested in the ads than they are in the actual sporting event that surrounds them.

2011 is no exception, with some amazing ads running alongside Super Bowl XLV. Thankfully it isn’t just on TV during the game that you can see these ads, with most of the brands involved seeking to make use of new media as well.

The Super Bowl commercials for 2011 are on YouTube, and the Google-owned video site is running its annual Ad Blitz contest for the fourth year in a row.

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The music video for Rihanna’s new song S&M is controversial. So much so it has reportedly been banned from TV in 11 countries and counting. But no worries, because it’s available to watch on YouTube so long as you pass the test.

Music Videos Online

Music videos are insanely popular online. Which is why they have their own entity, Vevo, which allows the record labels to exert more control over the way the videos of their artists are viewed.

The more intelligent artists and labels are using the Web to their advantage, creating videos which will cause a buzz on the Internet and can be shared via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. And Rihanna is one of those.

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A day in the life of one person is intriguing, but what about life, as it exists all around us, in a day? That’s surely even more intriguing, and it’s something which the YouTube movie, Life In A Day, explores in an evocative documentary.

YouTube Movie

The power of online video, especially YouTube with its amazing amount of content which is being added to all the time, is immense but somewhat underutilized at this point in time.

Video outlets on the Web, along with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, are now beginning to be used for political change, as can be seen in Tunisia and Egypt right now, but what about social change?

Online video can certainly offer an insight into other cultures and the lives of other people in countries most of us will never visit. And that is what documentary film Life In A Day, otherwise known as the YouTube movie, aims to show.

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As has been expected since, well, the moment the verdict was handed down, Viacom has appealed against the district court’s summary judgment that YouTube basically didn’t have a case to answer. Yawn.

YouTube Vs Viacom

YouTube Vs. Viacom dates back all the way to 2005 when the latter questioned the former over a copyrighted clip that had appeared on the former. The arguments continued for a couple of years before Google acquired YouTube, and Viacom seized its chance to sue for a lot of money.

The case took three years to actually come to court, and when it did so earlier this year, YouTube was victorious. The judge essentially ceded to the safe harbor provision of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), stating that YouTube is protected by that 100 percent.

Viacom obviously disagreed, and the wheels of an appeal were soon set in motion.

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