YouTube is said to be investing in 60 new professionally produced video “channels,” taking the company further from its roots as the gritty home of amateur content and anonymous comments.
YouTube is also in the process of deciding which of its 100 previously existing channels to renew, All Things D reports, under the guidance of channels honcho Robert Kyncl, formerly of Netflix. Under the channels program, known formally as “YouTube Original Channels,” YouTube pays an advance out to magazines, websites, celebrities, and other creative types to allow them to create serial video content. YouTube then recoups that money from advertising revenues, or at least that's the idea.
The only problem: Some of the amateur videographers who helped make YouTube into the force it is today are feeling burned. “I drank their Kool-Aid,” independent sports commentator Ryan Douthit recently told Reuters in a story titled “YouTube alienates amateur users by courting pros.” In Douthit's case, YouTube funded a competing, more polished sports commentary channel, which Douthit says is eating his lunch. Jim Louderback, CEO of online broadcaster Revision3, has said he sees a “flight of users” from YouTube.
Kyncl insists that bringing on professionals will be “fantastic” for YouTube’s amateurs because it will increase traffic to the platform as a whole. But it’s easy to see why the amateurs would feel less welcome at a video hub that is increasingly trying to spiff itself up to look more like a premium destination for top-shelf advertisers. Beyond funding professionally-made videos, YouTube is also trying to rein in its notoriously mean community of anonymous commenters and asking people to use their real names when contributing.
Google's video hub may yet succeed in growing its revenues. Whether it can preserve its soul at the same time remains to be seen.
