YouTube

Among new original show announcements for ad-supported video platform YouTube, its connected TV ads will now offer new functions for advertisers. Viewers can click to go to a brand’s website while still watching a video. The announcement came during YouTube’s IAB NewFronts presentation on Tuesday.

Usually, when social media executives are brought to testify in front of Congress, the hearings are centered on specific policies and types of content, misinfo and foreign interference, antitrust issues, and privacy concerns. What doesn’t quite get as much attention are the engines that drive these platforms: their algorithms. That’s what makes Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary hearing with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube different. The hearing is entirely focused on social media algorithms.

In a letter sent Tuesday to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy said YouTube does not do enough to protect kids from material that could harm them. Instead it relies on artificial intelligence and creators’ self-regulation to decide what videos make it on to the platform, according to the letter.

Siding with YouTube, the Biden administration is urging a federal judge to reject an attempt by video creators to invalidate Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The administration’s move comes in a lawsuit by Kimberly Carleste Newman and other content creators who say YouTube wrongly restricted and de-monetized videos with titles like “black lives matter,” “racism,” and “white supremacy.”

Facebook overwhelmingly is the most important social media platform for TV stations, say executives for CBS stations, E.W. Scripps, Nexstar, NBCU stations, Fox stations and Meredith. Broadcasters’ relationship with the platform once widely viewed as a “frenemy” continues to evolve, though the opacity of its all-important algorithm still frustrates. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

The series of 21 telecasts start on Wednesday, April 7, at 1:10 p.m. ET when the Boston Red Sox host the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays in the finale of a two-game series, MLB and YouTube said Monday. The games are exclusive and will not be televised by club broadcast partners.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said Thursday that former President Trump’s account on the platform will be reinstated “when we determine that the risk of violence has decreased.” Trump’s YouTube account was suspended a week after the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

The crop of Super Bowl ads 2021 employed a large contingent of A-list celebrities in front and behind the camera and featured major Hollywood brands. Not surprisingly, they dominated the list of most watched Super Bowl commercials on YouTube during gameday.

YouTube on Thursday announced an update to its global hub for sports content known as Sports. The changes are being made across mobile, desktop and connected TV (CTV). The content will offer clips and highlights from top leagues worldwide, along with exclusive live games and premium content from popular athletes and creators. Videos available are from NFL, La Liga, MLB, NBA and WWE.

ViacomCBS will be promoting new series on CBS by streaming them on Pluto TV and other over-the-top platforms. The Equalizer and Clarice will be available for two weeks after they premiere on the CBS Broadcast Network.

YouTube announced on Tuesday that it is extending its suspension of uploads from outgoing President Trump’s account for “a minimum” of another seven days, citing “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence.” The Google-owned platform, which initiated the Trump ban last week after Trump supporters’ insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, confirmed that it will also continue to stop comments from showing on videos posted in Trump’s channel.

As the historic events unfolded on Capitol Hill during the afternoon and evening of Jan. 6, people around the world tuned into news networks and social media to follow what was happening. The TV networks also harnessed social platforms such as YouTube to share breaking news, videos and more as the Capitol was thrown into chaos.

YouTube announced that it will temporarily suspend President Donald Trump’s official account for at least seven days. The video sharing platform now joins a number of internet apps, including Twitter and Snapchat, that have limited the president’s access following his involvement in last Wednesday’s violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, which left at least six people dead.

YouTube executive Kelly Merryman has been instrumental in improving content partnerships with large media companies like Disney and Viacom.

A federal judge has dismissed claims that YouTube, Hasbro, the Cartoon Network and other companies violated children’s privacy by allegedly tracking them in order to serve them with targeted ads. In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, Calif., said the children’s representatives couldn’t proceed with the case because the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act doesn’t allow for private lawsuits.

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday voted to issue orders to nine major internet platforms requiring information about how they handle data for a new study. The orders, which do not implicate any legal wrongdoing, were sent to Amazon, ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok), Discord, Facebook, Reddit, Snap, Twitter, WhatsApp and Youtube. The agency is requesting information about how the platforms collect, use, track or estimate personal and demographic information.

The feature will begin in Ad Settings in the U.S. with YouTube Ads, then in Google Ads and YouTube globally in early 2021. Countries with legal restrictions against serving gambling and alcohol ads will not see any change in their policies.

The Recording Industry Association of America runs into some pushback after objecting to a tool that creates permanent copies of YouTube content.

YouTube has begun inserting ads in some videos from channels not in its YouTube Partner Program, and therefore not eligible to share in the ad revenue. In a update to its terms of service this week, YouTube added language stating that it has the “right to monetize all content on the platform and ads may appear on videos from channels not in the YouTube Partner Program.”

YouTube on Tuesday launched audio ads and dynamic music lineups as the number of logged-in viewers continues to rise. Audio ads, in beta, is the first advertising format on YouTube designed to connect brands with music fans in engaged and ambient listening on the site.

During its third quarter earnings call, Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet reported that YouTube TV subscribers had passed 3 million. That’s up from 2 million reported in February — despite a monthly price hike from $50 to $65 at the end of the third quarter, following its deal to carry legacy Viacom cable networks. The new number puts YouTube TV in second place among virtual vMVPDs, behind Hulu, with 3.4 million subscribers as of 2Q.

The growth of video streaming of all types is now an impetus for Nielsen to add new measurement for YouTube and YouTube TV when it comes to the video-site advertising inventory on connected TV platforms. YouTube’s streaming TV inventory will be measured in Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings and Total Ad Ratings.

YouTube has supplanted Facebook as the most popular social media platform for viewing sports highlights, according to a new survey from Ring Digital. The research firm surveyed 1,400 sports video highlights viewers in August and found that 53% of respondents use YouTube for sports highlights on a regular basis, compared to 45% of respondents who said they use Facebook regularly.

A new Pew Research Center study finds that YouTube has become an important source of news for many Americans. About a quarter of all U.S. adults (26%) say they get news on YouTube. And while relatively few of these people say it is their primary news source, most say it is an important way they stay informed.

Facebook and other competitors host the same videos, but engineers have made changes that effectively preference YouTube — owned by Google — over other video sources. Wall Street Journal tests show YouTube usually ends up first and takes most of the slots in Google Search video carousels and prime results real estate.

Google’s YouTube has banned several white supremacist channels. Those banned include some of the net’s most high-profile far-right commentators, including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke; Canadian white nationalist activists/conspiracy theorist Stefan Molyneux; and U.S. white supremacist Richard Spencer, said to have coined the term “alt right.”

YouTube delivered its ninth annual NewFronts presentation to digital ad buyers, in a shorter, online format it dubbed “Brandcast Delivered.” Video presentations were customized to viewers’ interests, with on-camera participants in the heavily edited pitch including Lilly Singh, Josh Gad, Alex Rodriguez, Lyor Cohen and Mark Ronson, along with senior executives.

YouTube is experimenting with new ways to make video ads actionable, drive leads to increase performance, and automate content delivery across the platform. Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned YouTube’s direct-response business during the company’s 1Q earnings call in April, saying it has been a profitable focus for the company. Advertisers requested the support.

YouTube brought in $4.04 billion during the first quarter, marking an increase of 33% from the 1Q 2019, according to parent company Alphabet, which reported its first quarter earnings on Tuesday afternoon. Overall, YouTube accounted for nearly 10% of Alphabet’s $41.16 billion in 1Q sales. (Alphabet is also the parent company of Google.) YouTube’s $4.04 billion in 1Q sales falls a bit short of where it was at during the last quarter of 2019, when it reported $4.72 billion in revenue.