In an innovative and ambitious role reversal, a series of television stations have created dedicated channels on YouTube whereby they will provide their local news, sports and community coverage to the site’s huge audience in a revenue sharing deal.
Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. is teaming with Google Inc. and YouTube Inc. to distribute and monetize select television content with the firms. Starting today, television stations in five local markets – Boston; Manchester, N.H.; Sacramento, Cailf.; Pittsburgh; and Baltimore – will begin posting local video content to dedicated channels on YouTube.
While an ever-lengthening list of service providers and broadcasters have partnered with YouTube to add the site’s user-created videos to content lineups, Hearst-Argyle is headed in the other direction looking to promote its video to YouTube’s visitors.
Although many TV network owners have spoken of the value of distributing their content via online and wireless platforms, Hearst-Argyle could be the first to put a business model on an Internet effort via the revenue-sharing deal with YouTube. Details of the arrangement were not disclosed.
And while revenue-sharing arrangements are far from anything new in business relationships, they could fast become s staple for YouTube, which has taken a traffic-aggregation-first, monetization-later tack.
Hearst-Argyle, which owns 26 TV stations in geographically dispersed markets, did not say if it plans to have the 21 others follow suit and launch channels on YouTube.
Google Inc. www.google.com
Hearst-Argyle Television www.hearstargyle.com
YouTube Inc. www.youtube.com
