Can YouTube work as a TV channel?

BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5…and YouTube? With ‘YouTube Original Content Channels’ (YOCCs) the video-sharing site might become a recognised media channel in the household sooner than you might think.

What are YOCCs?
For those unfamiliar with YOCCs, over the past year YouTube, in attempt to become “the ‘Channel 6’ of television” according to its bosses, have partnered with over 100 media production companies to date whereby these companies produce original video content exclusively on the YouTube platform. YouTube provide the start-up cash upfront to fund the partner’s new channel, and both partners take a share of future advertising revenues when the channel begins to monetise. 

Current partners, spread across a wide range of categories, include: Red Bull TV, Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube in Cooking, MixMag TV in Music, and - a personal favourite - Copa90, a football channel in Sports which you can see in the video below. You can find the full list of YOCCs here.

The aim is obviously to attract more advertising spend onto the YouTube platform but more importantly doing it by fostering good quality, creative content for viewers and not solely through ads - a refreshing approach…I’m sick of YouTube ads…

Copa90
And it’s actually showing some promise too – big players are coming in and really experimenting with the medium, producing some brilliant unique content and building loyal fan bases. I’m enjoying them, as an avid fan of Copa90 – the football channel I mentioned earlier. Copa90 produce 8 different shows, uploading new episodes weekly or fortnightly.

I’ve been glued to the channel this football season, with routinely visits to watch one show in particular ‘The Eurofan’ (above) – where Radio 1 DJ Tom Deacon spends a day with home supporters in a Champions League city somewhere in Europe, looked after and given tips by the YouTubers who are following the Copa90 channel. And it’s built quite the following around Europe with likeminded football fans. If you’ve not seen it yet - watch it! 

But we’re not talking here about just a presenter and a small camera crew, although it might look that way. Copa90 is owned and run by the rather nicely named international digital media company BigBalls Ltd, a production company with a strong track record in using the latest digital channels. Back in the day (well in the Bebo days) BigBalls produced the first successful sponsored web drama ‘Kate Modern’ on Bebo - it got nominated for two BAFTAs. More success came from an online murder mystery show in 2009 ‘Who Killed Summer?’ sponsored by Vodafone and nominated for more top industry awards. And then there’s the successful online football game ‘I AM PLAYR’ sponsored by Nike and played in over 200 countries, and winning a Gold Lion in Branded Content and Entertainment at last year’s Cannes festival. See its trailer below. We’re talking here about a talented and innovative media firm.

Together with YouTube, BigBalls are aiming for Copa90 to become the biggest football destination in Europe – having already gathered 200,000 subscribers (including myself) worldwide – and have further plans to introduce up to 15 more sports channels just like it. 200,000 might sound modest in YouTube numbers, but we’re not talking about the 1 billion views ‘Gangnam Style’ amassed, we’re talking about loyal viewers returning for more who actually have a say in what is produced. It’s ground-breaking, it’s truly social and traditional TV might struggle to keep up with this growing trend.

And Copa90 is just one example. The world’s eyes were also glued to YouTube last year when Red Bull broadcast live Felix Baumgartner’s free fall from space back to earth on Red Bull TV. Talk about engaging content! It all seems quite promising if future YOCCs, presumably run by equally talented digital media companies, can maintain the high standards being set.

Are YOCCs the Future?
Can I see YouTube become a serious player in the media industry with YOCCs? Well, yes. With over 100 channels just like Copa90 and counting, YouTube’s vision to become the Channel 6 of TV is close to becoming a reality. I give it a year or two. It’s offering different content , sometimes more exciting than traditional television channels provide, it’s engaging and it’s significantly more interactive than the slapping of hashtags at the bottom of TV screens today. With trends moving towards one home entertainment system using combinations of the likes of Smart TVs, Xbox Live, and providers such as Virgin Media and Sky integrating digital services like BBC iPlayer, 4OD, ITV Player etc. into offerings, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that YouTube (or a separate YOCCs app) could soon be standing next to these services on our TV screens. 

Do YOCCs make money? Not yet. But it will come. YouTube are hoping to create such high demand that viewers might subscribe, paying £1 or £2 per month for access to such channels, but I don’t see that catching on. Would you pay to watch a YouTube channel? I wouldn’t. Instead I’d prefer to see a different approach like discrete endorsements or promotions – with Tom Deacon wearing branded clothing in next season’s ‘Eurofan’ – nothing obvious. YOCCs have the opportunity here to be discrete and different from the norm, a chance for a fresh approach.

It’ll certainly be interesting to follow the progress of YOCCs as they build stronger fan bases. I for one can’t wait for next seasons ‘Eurofan’ and other series like it. YOCCs might be on our home screens sooner than you think.

#NandosFergieTime

As news of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement from football management breaks, this is by far the best tweet of the day. Brands take note, this is how you do Twitter!

FACEBOOK, SPOTIFY, CHAIRS AND SHIT METAPHORS

I don’t know if you saw Facebook’s first ever ad towards the end of last year, perhaps you did but didn’t realise it actually had anything to do with Facebook. I don’t blame you. Quite amazingly Facebook’s first ever brand video, their first formal opportunity to tell the world about what it is and why people should use it, didn’t. Instead the ad was a confusing and shitty mini-film full of pointless hollow metaphors wrongly comparing Facebook to every-day objects…like chairs.

It was too easy to criticise so I left it. Until Spotify, one of my favourite digital services which I pay for and use frequently, produced a similar piece of garbage leaving me disappointed. It is the kind of feeling you get when your favourite band’s new album is actually awful and you face a dilemna whether to defend it or admit it’s infact terrible.

To make things worse these two ads are narrated by idiot condescending young Americans probably my age telling me that “chairs are for sitting on” and how “music is for listening to”. All with the latest Chillout music soundtrack in the background to make me feel like I’m in some magical fantasy land whilst watching the videos. “Wow”, they want me to think and they’re partly right. 

“Wow” I’m thinking, “these are shit!”

FACEBOOK

“Chairs. They’re made so people can sit down and take a break. Anyone can sit on a chair and if the chair is a large enough they can sit down together and tell jokes or make up stories or just listen. Chairs are for people and that’s why chairs are like Facebook.”

Of course chairs are for people you idiots, people invented them. We also like to call big chairs “couches”, not chairs. More importantly what is your point? If I didn’t have Facebook and watched this official brand video to find out more, I’d still be left asking many vital questions. Like, what is Facebook? How do I use it? Why should I use it? How is it like a chair? Oh wait, sorry no it’s a bridge isn’t it? Where do I use it? Does it cost me anything?

The video doesn’t even show a single computer, tablet device, smartphone…only forrests, basketball courts and doorbells. Doorbells? The video doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t tell people why it is so wonderful and important in millions of people’s lives.

SPOTIFY

And Spotify sadly chose to produce a similar ad to Facebook’s. The condescending young American tells us that Spotify is a “magnifying glass” and a “bullhorn”. Not the first comparisons I made with the service when I started to use it, I’ll admit. I immediately think Spotify is a music player, myself, or a digital jukebox if I’m being adventurous! He continues to tell me that music is great and we should use Spotify because after all we were all conceived whilst listening to music. Nice. Well say no more Spotify, how can I sign up and give you my money?

What’s worse is that my beloved Spotify previously got it right with its ads. Spotify’s ‘iPad app’ ad was fantastic, telling users how the product works, showcasing the great music on the service and the ad genuinely makes you want to subscribe to it. This rubbish ad on the other hand , like Facebook’s, fails to tell us anything other than more shit metaphors. It doesn’t even have the beautiful forrests or the doorbells. It’s just a crowd of people, that’s it. No computer, no tablet, and ironically no music! No music? It’s not that hard, do what you’ve been doing, or copy Apple’s iPod ads of the past which were some of the best ads going 10 years ago, in my opinion.

When did ‘advertising the product’ change to ‘compare the product to a series of shit analogies’, not even describing the product?

Facebook and Spotify should watch Google Chrome’s good ads and take note.

WHY I LOVE BUBBA WATSON

With golf’s first major The Masters this week, one would guess that defending champion Bubba Watson is training and preparing as much as possible to retain the green jacket at Augusta. Instead, for sunglasses brand Oakley, Bubba swaps a golf cart for a hovercraft.  The so -called ‘BW1’ can float over sand traps and water hazards, and speeds quickly along the fairway.

The discretely branded stunt by Oakley has achieved 188,316 shares in the last 7 days, making it the second most viral ad this week behind Beyonce’s Pepsi ‘Mirrors’.

You’ve got to take your golfing hat off to the lad. I love him. Whether it is his distinctive pink driver, his terrible music video or his silly trick videos, Watson is the closest man we have to Happy Gilmore. 

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