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Monday, May 9, 2011

Welcome to the future of video. Please stay a while.

It’s a Saturday and you want to watch your favorite YouTube star’s show, a big Hollywood movie, a clip of your friend’s weekend in Austin, a newly-released music video, a global sporting event, a live concert and breaking news from Japan. Six years ago, when YouTube first arrived, you’d have to go from TV to laptop, desk to couch, or platform to platform, to do all this. Six years ago, there were also two types of video: video you watched on your TV, and video you watched on your laptop. Today there’s increasingly just video, and it’s available everywhere: on a phone, a tablet, a laptop or a television screen, in your office, on your couch, in a cab.

YouTube isn’t about one type of device or one type of video. Content from traditional media partners, made-for-web and personal videos all co-exist on the site. Like surfing? You can watch pros shoot barrels, rent your favorite surf movie and check out your friend’s upload of his morning session at your favorite local spot. News junkie? YouTube has breaking news uploads from citizen journalists alongside anchored reports and live streams from news partners.

You’re finding more and more of the content you love on YouTube, which is now available on 350 million devices. We know this because you’re watching videos to the tune of 2 billion views a day. But you’re spending just 15 minutes a day on YouTube, and spending five hours a day watching TV. As the lines between online and offline continue to blur, we think that’s going to change.

Today, we’re going to start adding around 3,000 new movie titles for rent available to users in the U.S. (more on this in a post later today) that will be accompanied by reviews and behind-the-scenes movie extras. Whether it’s short movie trailers, funny movie parodies or full-length blockbuster films, we encourage you to sit back and settle in to the YouTube movies experience.

In addition to expanding our movie offerings, we’re also bolstering our investment in the content that’s already being viewed by hundred of millions of people on YouTube. Our 20,000+ partners—folks like Machinima, Annoying Orange and Ryan Higa—are producing original content for the web and commanding TV-size audiences for their own brand of programming. Through YouTube Next, we’re helping fuel the creation of this type of content with initiatives like the YouTube Creator Institute and YouTube NextUp, following past initiatives like Partner Grants (which brought us Key of Awesome, creators of one of 2010’s most-watched videos) and $1,000 B&H Photo credits. In the coming year, we’ll bring even more content to YouTube. Building on the success of Partner Grants and YouTube NextUp, we’re providing even more resources to creators who you’ll know from TV or Hollywood, and to existing YouTube partners who have already built loyal audiences on the site. Look out for more details on this in the coming months.

While six years ago you had to move device, room and platform to get all the video that matters most to you, today you can find it all on YouTube. By expanding our content partnerships worldwide and stimulating the success of budding filmmakers, artists and entrepreneurs, we’ll ensure that YouTube remains the best place for the world to see and discover rich talent. So stay tuned—there’s much more to come.

Salar Kamangar, Head of YouTube, recently watched “Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education



24 comments:

b.l said...

ok ... I liked the idea of this blog ... Congratulations to Google and the division of youtube.

Bruno Lima Ferreira
Sao Paulo - Brazil
bruno.31@uol.com.br

ThreeCrows said...

What would be the rate on the movie rental?

Max said...

just try to make youtube faster

2c441b86-7a73-11e0-8172-000bcdcb5194 said...

Dear Youtube,

Fix the issues with buffering for regular videos. If I can't expect a quality experience for <5minute videos (which have ads all around them) then I definitely won't spend money on premium services from Youtube.

soybeanrulz22 said...

Interesting.

mulling it over said...

Since I have access to netflix and its all-you-can-eat buffet of movies at a flat monthly rate, this is a non-starter for me. On top of that I have Amazon Prime, with even more movies. So the idea of paying for access to an individual title is pretty antiquated for myself and millions of other people in the current decade. Any plans to make the movie offerings available for a flat montly fee?

Michelle said...

Wow! It's been an exciting adventure to grow up alongside YouTube. We're so powerful now, I am proud. Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this community!<3

vman81 said...

Pretty nice... for the 5% of the world that lives in the US.

:(

Eric Knoepfler said...

COOOOL

Mirdad said...

why so much for the US and so little for the rest of the world?

Mike Rucci said...

Shouldn't this post be in the form of a video?

Sean Eddy said...

What 2c441b86-7a73-11e0-8172-000bcdcb5194 said.

ouchy42 said...

While it’s cool you will be offering PPV movies I already have movie rental options bombarding me. Will you be cheaper than the rest? If you want people to spend longer than 15 minutes on YouTube then you need to give the people what they want – and leave them wanting more. Sounds easy but the truth is its hard – and it’s expensive.

Michael said...

Salar,

Excellent post.

So this is the next iteration that explains the integration of 4K.

the 4K ecosystem is being built --

Salar, when will we see 4K become a more prominent aspect of YouTube product-line -- LeanBack, Next, GTV --

presumably, Google to waiting for the infrastructure (i.e. Kansas City gigabit) to rollout throughout the US

Thank you.

Juli said...

$4 EACH movie? I get unlimited online streaming AND mailed DVD's from Netflix for $8/month.

I love YT and hope you find another way to provide movies, because this plan can NOT compete with monthly subscriptions.

Heck, even Hulu.com has a monthly fee to watch some content.

jramskov said...

Mirdad: Indeed...same goes for Google TV and a lot of other services. US only :(

Tam said...

Until you announce an agreement to produce "Firefly/Serenity: an Original webseries written by Joss Whedon", I'm going to have a hard time caring. ;)

hoop_er said...

will these movies be viewable on iOS devices?

Hamish said...

I don't particularly want another ThemTube -- why not stick to what you do best?

Poxinfinite said...

Please bring this to the rest of the world. In the USA you have four or five big competitors in this space. In the UK it's only iTunes and it doesn't work with android tablets, a huge issue for competitiveness.

allen.kirshner029 said...

And yet you still can't fix the hundreds of bugs on the site and continue to screw around with things that work. Think you can make money on the movies? Fine. Just get rid of the experimental drop down menu and please start sending alerts again. Haven't received one since the beginning of April. That's aside from the subscription bug (closing in on a year since they've been out of order) and the Recent Activity section that STILL doesn't work properly and never has. Maybe if you gave a damn about fixing what ails this site, people would be more motivated to subscribe to your service.

cimedance said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFqqA4fr_6I

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ivan zempleni said...

je serais pour un you tube plus rapide

ivf said...

Very promising future !
fertility

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