YouTube to serve niche tastes by adding channels

A visit to YouTube these days shows so many professionally produced channels that it could be confused with a TV guide. There are channels for ABC News, Taylor Swift, Nike Football, America’s Test Kitchen and the Obama for America campaign.

The oddball videos of gurgling babies, teenagers crashing their skateboards and synchronized wedding dances are still there. But they have been increasingly buried under what YouTube calls original channels — polished, highly produced videos financed by YouTube. It is part of YouTube’s strategy, started a year ago, to lure television viewers and advertisers by helping to produce high-quality videos that cater to niche interests.

Now Google, which owns YouTube, is stepping up that effort. On Monday, it plans to announce that it is adding more than 50 original channels to the 100 it has introduced in the last year and expanding original channels.

Other online video platforms — including Amazon.com, Netflix and Hulu — are also trying to compete for viewers by creating original content. But transforming from platform to producer has been challenging for all, including Google. And it is hard to argue that YouTube, or any other video platform, is on a path to soon replace television — whether for viewers, content makers or advertisers.

“There are not any successes you can point to and say, this happened because of Google’s investment,” said James L. McQuivey, who studies digital video and television at Forrester. “What they’ve learned is that they haven’t invested enough.”

As part of the new effort, Google is investing a fresh $200 million to market the shows. It is also investing an additional, undisclosed amount — on top of the $100 million it invested last year — to pay for production equipment and, in some cases, pay the full production costs.

The new channels, which will carry advertising and be available free, include producers with major media experience. ESPN has a sports channel, Grantland; Sarah Silverman and Michael Cera have a comedy channel, Jash; and Everyday Health has a beauty and health channel, Daily Glow. There are also smaller, online-only producers, like Tastemade and PopSugar.

“I believe that every interest will, at some point, have a channel serving that interest,” said Robert Kyncl, global head of content at YouTube. “People are building channels and creating audiences, which is something they couldn’t do before in such numbers.”

YouTube says that its push in this area has already created successes.

The top 25 original channels average more than a million views a week, according to the company, and in the year since original channels were introduced, people have increased the hours they spend watching YouTube each month to four billion from three billion.

@ The New York Times