YouTube

YouTube, competing for TV ad dollars with TV companies that are shifting to streaming, announced that it is bringing 30-second commercials that can’t be skipped to YouTube Select on connected TVs. At its annual Brandcast presentation to advertisers during upfront week, YouTube also said it was introducing the ability to pause ads to CTVs.

The world’s biggest free ad-supported streaming service saw ad revenue decline for a third straight quarter, with Alphabet reporting a 2.6% year-over-year ad sales drop for YouTube in 1Q to $6.69 billion. YouTube still narrowly outperformed equity analysts forecasts of $6.6 billion. It reported a 7.8% year-over-year revenue drop in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 and a 1.9% decline in 3Q.

YouTube revealed the highly anticipated details of its new streaming plan for NFL Sunday Ticket on Tuesday, providing a win for fans who were shut out of the programming when it was aired by DirectTV by making the service available to anyone with web access. But it’s a win that comes at a hefty cost: The price for the out-of-market football game service is rising, the Google-owned YouTube said in a blog post. Fast-acting fans can get a $100 discount if they sign up for the service before June 6.

As the TV industry tries to set new standards for cross-platform measurement, YouTube, the streaming leader, wants in and the VAB, representing programmers, is pushing back.

The SAG Awards, often an Oscar preview, threw some curve balls into the Oscars race in a ceremony streamed live on Netflix’s YouTube page from Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Above: Stephanie Hsu, center, and members of the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once, accept the award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture at the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. (Chris Pizzello/AP)

In a tweet, Wojcicki said she sent an email to YouTube employees announcing her plans to step back from her role as head of YouTube to start a new chapter focused on her family, health and personal projects she is passionate about. She will be succeeded by Neal Mohan, who is chief product officer at YouTube, a division of Alphabet.

For a second straight year, YouTube will host its annual Brandcast pitch to video ad buyers during the heart of what had been a week dominated by traditional TV network upfronts in New York. The digital video giant, which had been an anchor tenant of the more digitally focused NewFronts ad showcase held earlier in the spring, made its mid-May debut last year with a show in the Broadway theater district. This year, on May 17, Brandcast is heading uptown to Lincoln Center’s recently renovated David Geffen Hall. The evening show will be followed by an after-party, YouTube said in a blog post.

The potential loss of 1.5 million Sunday Ticket customers presents a challenge to DirecTV.

Now that Google’s YouTube has inked a massive multi-year deal for NFL Sunday Ticket — for $2 billion-plus a year, according to reports — one major question is how much the price will rise for consumers.

The NFL and Google have sealed a multi-year agreement giving YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package in the U.S. The pact, which takes effect in 2023, replaces a partnership between the league and DirecTV since the introduction of the Sunday Ticket package — which delivers out-of-market games to subscribers — in 1994. The NFL had held talks for months with multiple bidders, indicating last summer that it would likely head to a streaming service.

The National Football League is in advanced talks to give Google’s YouTube exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, a subscription-only package that allows football fans to watch most Sunday afternoon games, people familiar with the matter said. An agreement could be reached as early as Wednesday, following a meeting of NFL owners, who approve rights deals.

YouTube is getting into the third-party streaming subscription game, launching Primetime Channels, a hub where consumers can sign up for Showtime, Starz, Paramount+ and more than 30 other services. The initiative is starting in the U.S., the company confirmed in a blog post. Visitors to YouTube can access Primetime Channels via the Movies & TV area of YouTube. NBA League Pass and other services are coming soon, the blog post indicated.

YouTube is rolling out a new look and additional features to all users that began on Monday, including a pinch-to-zoom feature, new button options, ambient mode, an “even darker” dark mode, and more-precise seeking. The company’s new pinch-to-zoom feature, which became available as a test to Premium subscribers in August, allows iOS and Android users to zoom in on videos for heightened clarity on specific details. 

People have become dependent on content from YouTube to help them do everything from learning how to fix a flat tire on a car, to how to bake a loaf of sourdough bread. These are moments that matter, so to help advertisers reach engaged viewers, YouTube will launch a feature it calls Moment Blast, designed for brands looking to raise awareness in key moments in a day, such as during major sporting events, movie releases or product launches.

YouTube is finally going to give @uniquenames — that are comprehensible to human beings — to every single channel on the platform. On Monday, the video giant announced that it is introducing handles, which it described as “a new way for people to easily find and engage with creators and each other on YouTube.” The YouTube handles will appear on channel pages and Shorts, which will make it “simpler and faster to mention each other in comments, community posts, video descriptions and more,” the service explained.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case that challenges tech companies’ broad immunity to lawsuits over content hosted on their platforms. The case marks a new focus for the highest court to weigh in on Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that protects platforms from being sued over most third-party content on their sites. The court will decide in the case of Gonzalez v. Google LLC whether those protections are too far-reaching when it comes to Google’s recommendations of terrorist videos.

YouTube has spent years building YouTube Shorts and its creator program. Now it will give creators an option to monetize content earlier. Executives at the company’s Made on YouTube event, live and virtual, on Tuesday announced updates to its YouTube Partner Program, which now includes monetizing Shorts. In early 2023, YouTube creators can apply to become part of the platform’s revenue-sharing program if they have at least 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views in 90 days.

When users search for election content on either Google or YouTube, recommendation systems are in place to highlight journalism or video content from authoritative national and local news sources such as The Wall Street Journal, Univision, PBS NewsHour and local ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates.

Bloomberg: “YouTube went to war against terrorists, just not white nationalists.”

Access to the video site allows Russians access to one of the few sources of independent information about the Ukraine war. YouTube still operates in Russia, possibly because the Kremlin views it as too big to block.

Perhaps disabusing the video business of the notion that sustained double-digit growth is merely a matter of transitioning models from subscriber to advertising focus, YouTube just reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth in more than two years. Alphabet said during its second quarter earnings report Tuesday that YouTube generated $7.34 billion from April-June, up 4.8% year over year. The expansion missed equity investor forecasts of around $7.49 billion.

The measurement firm says media buyers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile and CTV to linear TV, a “foundational step” toward achieving Nielsen ONE.

The official series’ YouTube page, Instagram account and website have seemingly been deleted following the syndicated show’s cancellation. Eagle-eyed fans noticed the pages being down over the weekend. On Instagram, the handle’s feed showed a “Sorry, this page isn’t available” message. The show’s website and the video channel are also both nowhere to be found.

Alphabet’s Google discloses Shorts monthly viewership for first time amid heightened competition from TikTok and Instagram Reels.

In its fine print, the ad, produced by agency Essence and debuting May 16, says it bases the claim on a 2022 study by SmithGeiger “comparing comparable services over 24 months, including hidden fees, promotion pricing, DVR box rental and service fee, and second cable box for the home, if applicable.”

Free Press, Common Cause and a number of other progressive groups and civil rights advocates have called on the biggest social media companies to combat disinformation in the run-up to the midterm elections, the first national election since the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, saying if they don’t, they are “the dominant threat” to the democratic process. That came in the form of letters to the CEOs of Meta, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and Alphabet from more than 100 groups.

As the industry continues to try to solve the increasingly complicated measurement problem, YouTube and Nielsen have partnered to add co-viewing metrics to account for multiple viewers watching YouTube TV and YouTube on connected TV.

The league has renewed a deal with YouTube to carry 15 exclusive games on the platform this season. The renewal means YouTube will stream MLB games for a fourth consecutive season; the first contest of 2022 will be a Washington Nationals-Colorado Rockies matchup on May 5.

YouTube, looking to compete with free-ad supported streaming channels as more of its viewing occurs on connected TVs, is offering viewers a collection of licensed TV programs they can watch for free with commercial interruptions. Google’s streaming video giant said it has more than 4,000 episodes of shows including relatively recent series.

Google, one of the few American corporate giants still operating in Russia, is poised to lose one of its biggest footholds in the country as tensions with the Kremlin continue to escalate. Alphabet Inc.’s Google shut its advertising business in Russia while maintaining its popular consumer services, such as YouTube. But the video service has become a significant source of tension with the government.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is forcing big tech companies to decide how to handle state-controlled media outlets that spread propaganda and misinformation on behalf of the invaders.

Susanne Daniels has resigned as YouTube’s global head of original content after six years. She will leave in March. There, Daniels developed Cobra Kai, which was a YouTube original before moving to Netflix after two seasons. She also developed On Becoming a God in Central Florida, which moved to Showtime.