YouTube hopes to convert more amateur videographers into capitalists as it strives to show more advertising on its Web site and reverse years of uninterrupted losses.
The Internet’s top video channel will try to widen participation in a 20-month-old advertising program by actively recruiting the makers of widely watched clips.
The more aggressive approach announced Tuesday is a switch from YouTube’s previous practice of waiting for video makers to apply to the ad program.
The strategy hasn’t been profitable for YouTube so far – something that the site’s owner, Internet search leader Google Inc., wants to change.
After buying YouTube for $1.76 billion in late 2006, Mountain View-based Google initially focused on luring more people to the video site.
As the recession squeezed Google, the emphasis this year shifted to making money, prompting YouTube to explore new ways to show ads alongside more of the millions of clips clicked on its site each day.
YouTube won’t allow advertising without the consent of a video maker, largely to avoid legal fights over who has the right to profit from the work.
That policy means YouTube needs to persuade more video makers to allow ads. Toward that end, YouTube will try to quickly identify videos with a big following and then contact the owners of the clips about advertising opportunities.
YouTube expects the solicitations to boost the number of advertising partners from the thousands to the tens of thousands, said Tom Pickett, the video site’s director of online sales and operations.
It probably won’t require much arm twisting, given that the video owners get most of the revenue from the ads accompanying their clips. Google won’t specify how much it pays each of its ad partners, though it typically ranges anywhere from 70 percent to 90 percent of the revenue.
Disney Pledges $15 million In L.A. Fire Aid As More Celebs Learn They’ve Lost Their Homes
The Pacific Palisades wildfires torched the home of "This Is Us" star Milo Ventimiglia, perhaps most poignantly destroying the father-to-be's newly installed crib.
CBS cameras caught the actor walking through his charred house for the first time, standing in what was once his kitchen and looking at a neighborhood in ruin. "Your heart just breaks."
He and his pregnant wife, Jarah Mariano, evacuated Tuesday with their dog and they watched on security cameras as the flames ripped through the house, destroying everything, including a new crib.
"There's a kind of shock moment where you're going, 'Oh, this is real. This is happening.' What good is it to continue watching?' And then at a certain point we just turned it off, like 'What good is it to continue watching?'"
Firefighters sought to make gains Friday during a respite in the heavy winds that fanned the flames as numerous groups pledged aid to help victims and rebuild, including a $15 million donation pledge from the Walt Disney Co.
More stars learn their homes are gone
While seeing the remains of his home, Ventimiglia was struck by a connection to his "This Is Us" character, Jack Pearson, who died after inhaling smoke in a house fire. "It's not lost on me life imitating art."
Mandy Moore, who played Ventimiglia's wife on "This Is Us," nearly lost her home in the Eaton fire, which scorched large areas of the Altadena neighborhood. She said Thursday that part of her house is standing but is unlivable, and her husband lost his music studio and all his instruments.
Mel Gibson's home is "completely gone," his publicist Alan Nierob confirmed Friday. The Oscar winner revealed the loss of his home earlier Friday while appearing on Joe Rogan's... Read More