In a bid to throw off its reputation as a storage container for millions of hours of videos of cats in boxes, video Goliath YouTube is launching over 60 new channels.
The channels are to be provided by existing personalities, media companies and "pioneers in online video" from the UK, Europe and the US. Pretty much every conceivable audience will be catered to with categories ranging from automotive, comedy and entertainment to science, sports and women's interest. You can browse the whole list of upcoming channels right now, but you won't be able to watch anything until they go live "in the coming months."
There's a whole bunch of UK-created stuff to enjoy from Daily Mix and Fashtag in the beauty category, HuHa in comedy, OnEarth by the BBC in entertainment as well as school-dinner busting Jamie Oliver in the food channel.
Rather than simply providing endless search results of cats and bad song covers, the new channels will hopefully make it easier to find quality quality content. The intention is clearly to make YouTube more of a go-to place for new content, especially for people with access to YouTube on their TVs via smart applications or set-top boxes.
It's not just the big media companies with massive budgets creating great video stuff, so this move should really benefit up-and-coming new faces with little more than a camcorder and a good idea.
Whether this is enough to pull viewers from the broadcast channels on Freeview, YouView and Freesat remains to be seen. While you're waiting the channels to go live over the next few months, check out the full list and also why not head over to our own superb video section to see some existing -- not to mention expertly produced -- videos about tech.
What do you think to the new channels? Is there enough on offer enough to stop you watching broadcast TV altogether, or is YouTube simply the place where you dump your phone videos of your mates falling over? Let me know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page.
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anonymous 8 October, 2012 21:03
I think this is a smart move from both YouTube and the media companies, they are really trying to get into the advantages of the internet and finding new ways to give some entertainment and get some profit... I think the main cuestion is if the channels will have a charge for the user, if it will require a paid membership or a specific payment according to the show, I think that will be the key factor for the failure or success of this new offer... specially outside america and europe where we don't have much of a PPV culture