Google’s YouTube is reportedly hoping to launch about 20 different “channels,” each featuring several hours per week of original content in categories such as sports, arts and entertainment.
The site will reportedly spend as much as $100 million to get its project off the ground and is in talks with major Hollywood talent agencies to attract content creators to YouTube. The ultimate goal is to get you to watch YouTube the same way you watch TV, according to The Wall Street Journal.
YouTube’s original programming should start appearing online this year.
It’s not just YouTube that is hoping to challenge, replace or supplement traditional broadcast television. In January, rumors surfaced that Hulu and its backers were thinking of selling live online broadcast TV subscriptions – Hulu is an independently run company jointly owned by NBCUniversal, News Corp., The Walt Disney Co. and a private equity firm.
Netflix is getting increasingly stronger when it comes to premium streaming content. The service recently signed a deal that will bring the first four seasons of AMC’s Mad Men to Netflix streaming in July. The company has also tied up streaming rights to the upcoming fifth and sixth seasons, as well as a potential seventh season (reportedly Mad Men’s last), after those seasons finish running on AMC.
Television networks routinely offer the latest episodes of hit shows for online streaming from their own sites as well as on Hulu and other Web destinations. Apple’s iTunes, Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand also offer a wide variety of recent television and film programming for streaming or download.
This is not the first time YouTube has ventured into the original programming game. In September, the site ran a two-day live streaming experiment featuring original content from online sensations such as Rocketboom, Howcast and Next New Networks.
YouTube also signed a two-year deal in early 2010 for the worldwide streaming rights to live broadcasts of India Premier League cricket matches. And YouTube is reportedly hoping to become an online destination for other sports broadcasting such as the NBA and NHL, according to the Guardian.
Finally, Google’s video site is also building up a small roster of television and film content.
It’s a good bet that over the next several years, original dramas, news broadcasts, sports and other programming will undergo a radical shift from broadcast TV to online streaming.
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