YouTube’s skippable ad format is now making Google as much revenue per hour as ads on cable TV, according to YouTube’s global head of content.
Speaking at the Mipcom TV industry event, YouTube global head of content Robert Kyncl claimed the group’s skippable ads format means it is now matching US cable groups in terms of per-hour revenue.
Kyncl praised the support of big-name brand advertisers that have embraced the ad, saying: “We’re making ads optional. Users can skip them if they don’t like them. That’s a big deal. When advertisers pay only when ads are watched – and when viewers are watching only the ads that they care about – they won’t and they don’t mind paying. That means content creators are making more. Everybody wins. And it’s because of that, our system is starting to work.”
YouTube also used the event to announce the expansion of its original channels initiative into Europe.
Commenting on the expansion of its 100 US original channels initiative into Europe, with a host of new YouTube networks in the UK, France and Germany, Kyncl compared YouTube’s evolution to a car shifting gears.
First gear was YouTube’s launch as a global platform in 2005, he said. Second gear was the localisation of content and advertising in different countries, with tailored versions of the site now live in 46 countries. The latest country to get its own site was Turkey, last week.
“Last year we started to look at the consumer and advertiser metrics in the US. We liked the trajectory that we saw, so we decided to forward-invest our content in investments and catalyse a great new set of channels from existing as well as new partners coming to YouTube. That is gear three. This morning, we announced that the UK, France and Germany are going from gear two to gear three,” said Kyncl.
“We’ll remain in gear three for a couple of years, because that’s what it takes to build up big channels on a broader, wide scale. After that, we will look to supercharge those partners who are by then really successful on YouTube and take them to the next level. After that, all systems, all around the world, will be at full throttle and we’ll simply go to gear five: top speed all the way through.”
YouTube announced the launch of 60 new channels in total today – 46 across the UK, France and Germany with the rest joining the ranks of the 100 already announced in the US.
Among the major partners coming onboard with the latest wave are channels from All3Media, Zodiak Media, Shine Group-owned ChannelFlip, Endemol, BBC Worldwide, ITN Productions, Euronews, UK-based content producer Gravity Road, and a video offshoot of dance music magazine Mixmag.
