YouTube - New Design on April 16
YouTube is planning a big redesign with the aim of separating its revenue-generating premium and long-form programming from the user generated content (UGC) that has made it popular, writes Clickz.
Sources familiar with Google's plans for YouTube claim that the new design will replace the current navigation scheme containing "videos," "channels," and "community" categories, with tabbed navigation that will direct users to the clearly defined sections for professional content.
The new categories are Movies, Music, Shows, and Videos. The first three will offer monetized (displaying in-stream advertising) premium shows, clips, and movies from Google's network and studio partners, while the Videos channel will continue to house the amateur and semi-pro content that major brand advertisers have shied away from.
YouTube's video player will also be redesigned to look more like Hulu, the News Corp.- and NBCU-owned video portal. Like Hulu, the player will display visual markers in places where ads are scheduled to play, and users will be able to control the brightness of screen real estate outside the video frame, enabling the dimmed "home theatre" option that many Hulu fans enjoy.
According to one source, Google is not planning to sell whole episodes to a single advertiser or brand - unlike NBC and ABC, both of which offer advertisers exclusive presence on any given episode on their own sites. CBS allows for multiple sponsors within a single episode, and Hulu offers a blend of single-sponsor and multi-sponsor episodes.
The planned launch date for the overhauled site is April 16.
YouTube's current offerings include mostly older material from partners like CBS, Lions Gate, MGM, and Sony (Beverly Hills 90210, MacGyver, and Star Trek The Original Series), but Google has indicated that it's working to make available more recent shows and movies.
In February, YouTube started permitting select video publishers to charge users to download videos onto their computers.
That same month, YouTube signed a deal with major Hollywood talent agency William Morris in an effort to add more premium content to the site.
Sources familiar with Google's plans for YouTube claim that the new design will replace the current navigation scheme containing "videos," "channels," and "community" categories, with tabbed navigation that will direct users to the clearly defined sections for professional content.
The new categories are Movies, Music, Shows, and Videos. The first three will offer monetized (displaying in-stream advertising) premium shows, clips, and movies from Google's network and studio partners, while the Videos channel will continue to house the amateur and semi-pro content that major brand advertisers have shied away from.
YouTube's video player will also be redesigned to look more like Hulu, the News Corp.- and NBCU-owned video portal. Like Hulu, the player will display visual markers in places where ads are scheduled to play, and users will be able to control the brightness of screen real estate outside the video frame, enabling the dimmed "home theatre" option that many Hulu fans enjoy.
According to one source, Google is not planning to sell whole episodes to a single advertiser or brand - unlike NBC and ABC, both of which offer advertisers exclusive presence on any given episode on their own sites. CBS allows for multiple sponsors within a single episode, and Hulu offers a blend of single-sponsor and multi-sponsor episodes.
The planned launch date for the overhauled site is April 16.
YouTube's current offerings include mostly older material from partners like CBS, Lions Gate, MGM, and Sony (Beverly Hills 90210, MacGyver, and Star Trek The Original Series), but Google has indicated that it's working to make available more recent shows and movies.
In February, YouTube started permitting select video publishers to charge users to download videos onto their computers.
That same month, YouTube signed a deal with major Hollywood talent agency William Morris in an effort to add more premium content to the site.
posted by RoMay J. Allen at 3:14 PM
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