Google’s YouTube is expanding “beyond amateur and pirated content,” said Anthony Ha in Venture Beat, with a new section of its site featuring TV shows and movies from Sony, CBS, Lionsgate, and other studios. In other words, YouTube is “starting to sound a lot more like Hulu,” the popular online video venture between NBC and Fox. YouTube gets a lot more “eyeballs” than Hulu, so maybe this “baby step” will lead somewhere.
Don't bet on it, said Mark Hachman in PC Magazine. With a lineup of shows “only a sick old retiree could love,” YouTube’s new offering is “a little embarrassing.” YouTube will need more than “dollar VHS bin” movies and Alf reruns if it wants to give Hulu any competition at all, or get people to sit through the TV ads it’s splicing in.
YouTube, which reportedly loses $470 million a year, has to make money somehow, said Douglas MacMillan in BusinessWeek, and advertisers have been “squeamish” about hawking their products next to “unsavory, user-generated videos.” Hulu, with its roster of new shows, has been an advertising success—and that’s why studios are being "stingier” with YouTube.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
October 9 editorial cartoonsCartoons Thursday’s political cartoons include common political ground over the Epstein files, a new pledge for ICE agents, Bad Bunny, and more
-
Five policies from the Tory conferenceIn Depth Party leader Kemi Badenoch has laid out the Conservative plan for a potential future government
-
A House of Dynamite: a ‘nail-biting’ nuclear-strike thrillerThe Week Recommends ‘Virtuoso talent’ Kathryn Bigelow directs a ‘fast-paced’ and ‘tense’ ‘symphony of dread’
