YouTube to offer television shows

 

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Posted on 13 Oct 2008 at 11:00

YouTube has started to run full-length TV shows, as Google continues its bid to make the site profitable.

The site currently has a deal with CBS to show programs from its archive in the US, and says it is talking to other TV networks.

YouTube says CBS will sell the advertisements around the shows, with the companies sharing advertising revenue. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The site is currently showing a mix of CBS shows, including "Star Trek," "Young and the Restless" and "Beverly Hills 90210," will now be available in full-length episodes of 20 minutes to 48 minutes.

The shows will have a full-length badge to distinguish them from shorter clips, and will be available in a new theatre mode to improve the viewing experience, according to YouTube.

The new partnership will put YouTube in direct competition with Hulu, the online video site owned by News Corp and NBC Universal.

Hulu features up-to-date full-length shows from the Fox, NBC and CBS networks, however, YouTube's audience dwarfs Hulu. YouTube is the world's largest online video site with more than 330 million users in August, according to web audience measurement firm comScore. Hulu by comparison had just 3.3 million users.

But even with more than 13 hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube has struggled to establish a strong advertising business model to justify the $1.65 billion price tag that Google paid for the site in 2006.

Google is also fighting a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit from Viacom over content uploaded to the site without Viacom's permission.

Author: Reuters