The BBC has teamed up with YouTube in a deal which will see short clips of BBC content played on YouTube, the web's most popular video sharing website owned by Google. The aim of the deal for the BBC is to attract more web users to the BBC's website through site traffic from YouTube.There will be three BBC channels on YouTube - one for news and two for entertainment:
BBC: this is one of two entertainment channels which will be a 'public service' with no advertising. This channel will show clips of programmes and trailers; for example, showing users around the Dr Who set to entice users to the BBC website, from where they can watch or download BBC programmes in full.
BBC Worldwide: this is the second entertainment channel that will play self-contained clips up to six minutes long from popular BBC programmes; for instance, clips from Top Gear and nature programmes by David Attenborough are expected to be included.
This channel will feature advertising; for example, banner ads and pre-roll adverts. BBC Worldwide said that this is not a new concept for them, as BBC magazines like Top Gear and channels like BBC World and UK Living already carry advertising.
The corporation will also get a share of the advertising revenue generated by traffic to the new YouTube channels.
BBC News: the news channel, which will be launched towards the end of 2007, will show about 30 news clips per day. It will be funded by advertising and similar to deals with Yahoo! USA and Real Networks. Controversially, because of advertising legislation, these clips can be seen outside the UK only. Any UK users clicking on a link to one of the news clips on YouTube will incur the message that they have no access to this clip.
The BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, said the deal was a "ground-breaking partnership" that would "engage new audiences in the UK and abroad".
The BBC's director of Future Media and Technology, Ashley Highfield, said the deal was "not about distributing content like full-length programmes; YouTube is a promotional vehicle for us".
TV networks in the US, including CBS, NBC and Fox, have already trialled this method of promotion and several television programmes experienced a huge increase in viewers after clips were made available on YouTube.
Other media companies have already accused the BBC of straying from its license-fee funded public service remit and moving too far into commercial web ventures.
YouTube enables members to watch, share videos and upload their own content. As a result, the site hosts a lot of pirated film and music clips uploaded by members who do not own the copyright. The media firm Viacom, for example, recently demanded that YouTube remove tens of thousands of clips from the site for which the firm owned the copyright.
The BBC said they would not be hunting down all BBC-copyrighted clips already uploaded by YouTube members. However, it said it would reserve the right to swap poor quality clips with the real thing or to have content removed that infringed other people's copyright, like sport, or that had been edited or altered in a way that would damage the BBC as a brand.
