YouTube (Finally) To Offer Full-Length TV Episodes

by stephanie ~ October 14, 2008

YouTube is well known for its plethora of short videos that have been uploaded to the site by both individual users and companies.  After months of trial runs, YouTube announced it would begin offering full-length episodes of television shows.

YouTube partnered with CBS to show TV series like “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Dexter,” and “Star Trek.”  The TV shows will, not surprisingly, include short ads before, during, and after episodes.  Google, YouTube’s owner, has been under pressure to raise more revenue from the video-sharing site, which traditionally does not feature such ads during its short video clips.

As it becomes more and more popular to watch television shows online, viewers will be happy to have another place to find their favorite shows.

I am surprised that it took YouTube so long to follow other websites like Hulu, which is owned by News Corporation and NBC Universal.  Hulu features a vast number of television shows and movies, reporting over 100 million video streams per month.  Though the majority of YouTube’s videos are short clips rather than full-length shows, the company was still able to pull in five billion monthly video views in July 2008.

Will Hulu be hurt by YouTube’s new development?  Maybe.  But some early reviewers of the YouTube service are noting the poor video quality, especially when compared to the more crisp quality on Hulu.  However, if YouTube is able to capitalize on its size and budget availability, it may be able to form partnerships with more media companies and pull more shows onto YouTube and less onto Hulu.

More content = more advertisers = more $$$.

More info on YouTube’s Announcement:

eFluxMedia: YouTube Offers For the First Time Full TV Episodes

New York Times: YouTube to Offer TV Shows With Ads Strewn Through

YouTube: Hungry for more? YouTube now serving full-length TV dinners

Stephanie Jones is an intern at Mediashop PR.  A student at Fordham University, Stephanie is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies.