Social video sharing network YouTube has placed heavy levels of investment into the creation and monetization of original content for several years now, placing this initiative at the centre of its long-term strategy.
YouTube has now announced that as it prepares to distribute the $200m allocated for the second round of content funding, it will also be scaling back the number of channels it funds by more than half.
Each of the original channels which manage to survive the cull will receive between $1m and $5m, refining down the content to the most successful whilst providing them with a greater level of funding.
The original content-creation initiative launched earlier this year with initial funding of $100m, supported by more than 60 global partners.
YouTube’s big experiment in bringing something new to their environment represents a huge financial gamble, one which could develop significant, regular audiences visiting specific channels.
The overall goal is to push traffic beyond the current and already incredible figures, leading to an increased value in utilising the space for advertising.
How much will it take to repay the investment in a channel? For every $1m invested it will take approximately 50 million channel views to repay.
No small feat, but one which the bright sparks creating the content are keen to meet.
The world’s biggest social network is getting back into the testing lab with the limited launch of a new comment ranking feature for brand pages and subscriptions.
