[Wall Street Journal April 7, 2010]

YouTube is taking a new view on how we view television. With new internet televisions, YouTube is looking to get viewers to watch YouTube like they watch TV. The company plans to create specialized channels such as art, sports, etc. during which companies will advertise in order to pay for the programing. In order to make this happen, YouTube must get the advertisers interested but as usual, there are pros and cons to everything…

Pros:

• Expected to generate $800 billion next year
• Expected to draw $70 billion away from the television-ad market
• Advertisers get to market to their target audience via specific channels
• 111 million viewers on YouTube in February 2011
• Certain channels receiving further backing from “tastemakers” such as celebrities, political figures and athletes
• Viewers do not have to pay to watch what are normally subscription programming, i.e. HBO, etc. therefore view time increases as does viewing of advertisement

Cons:

• The average viewing time of YouTube was 2 hours and 14 minutes vs. Netflix at 9 hours and 16 minutes during the month of February ultimately limiting advertiser’s capture time
• Not a guaranteed return on investment since it is a trial run

As a consumer, I would must rather spend 5 minutes of my time watching advertising opposed to paying $150 a month in cable bills. Ultimately if a marketing team expects to exist in 5 years, they better invest in YouTube now, for television will be obsolete.

Filed under: Social Media Marketing