It’s not enough for Google to have taken over the internet, they now want to conquer television as well. In their own special way that is. Google is the owner of YouTube, the site that brings you most of your online videos. It is also the third most popular site on the internet, after Google itself, and then Facebook. Google has recently announced some changes that will be taking place regarding YouTube.
Basically, the site will be offering various “channels”, showing content that is relevant for each specific channel, such as sports. There should end up being about twenty channels in total, each with a different purpose. These channels will apparently show between five to ten hours of original content every week. According to News24, YouTube has even had meetings with Hollywood producers and stars for the new venture. This could allow them to create their own, professional content for the site that is appealing to the public.
There will also be personalised channels available for individual users, where people are able to customise what type of content they would like. They will also be able to upload videos, post personal information, and save favourite clips.
The move is taking place after the success of online television in the US, where Google is trying to use people’s current love for the site to make it even more popular than regular television. One of the biggest potential rivals will be Netflix.inc, a company that offers online, on-demand video streaming as well as mail order DVD rental.
The changes are reported to cost up to 100 billion US dollars, and should start rolling out by the end of this year.
I have a friend who enjoys Lost so much that he couldn’t wait for it to be shown in South Africa, so he simple downloaded each episode as soon as it had been shown in the US. (For those of you worried about piracy, he then went and bought the DVDs as soon as they were available. Did I mention he was a die-hard fan?). I wonder how many other people would be prepared to pay the cost of downloading an entire series in South Africa at present?
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