YouTube to trial pre-video ads
By Andrew Fairbairn, 21 May 2009 - 21:01 45 comments
YouTube is to run a trial of "pre-roll" video ads on selected content from several broadcasters starting from today. The pre-roll ads are short video ads shown before the video you requested and could be up to 30 seconds long. Advertisements will start appearing around videos from BBC Worldwide, ITN, Discovery, National Geographic and - from today - Channel 4.
The idea for this form of advertising was first discussed over 2 years ago, back in 2007, so it has taken a while for the plans to come to fruition. These ads will be sold on a CPM (cost per mille) basis where the advertiser pays a certain price for every one thousand views of an ad. Whilst YouTube recommends a length of around 15 seconds for the advertisements, the advertisers will have a maximum of 30 seconds to use.
Activision, Renault, Match.com, Nissan and Warner Brothers will be some of the first to utilise the new test scheme, with an ad for Warner Brothers' new film The Hangover to be the first pre-roll ad, according to The Guardian. The overall aim of the scheme seems to be to get more high-end content providers to upload videos to YouTube, encouraging them with the incentive of the opportunity for more revenue.
Suveer Kothari, the head of YouTube UK, said: "Since we launched YouTube we have been trying to balance the demands of users looking for free, entertaining, professional content on the web, premium content owners looking for ways to monetise their content and advertisers looking for more premium content for them to showcase their TV creative against." Errol Baran, the head of future and digital media advertising at Channel 4 - who are the first content provider to show the ads - added, "[a]udience appetite for video-on-demand continues to demonstrate the shifting patterns of video consumption," showing that broadcasters must adapt to the changing viewing habits of consumers.
Comments (45)
al11588 - 21 May 2009 - 21:20
stupid idea.
Xero - 22 May 2009 - 00:33
Agreed. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't remove everything good because of copyright bs.
Antiprophet - 21 May 2009 - 21:22
so the bbc make you pay a tv licence to have ad free TV.
if you don't have a tv licence you are not allowed to look at the bbc website/bbc content online...
but yet they have ads on the site and now on their youtube videos?
jokers.
the andyman - 21 May 2009 - 21:36
BBC Worldwide is different to the BBC that you pay your license fee for
The Stylish Hobo - 21 May 2009 - 22:11
if you don't have a tv licence you are not allowed to look at the bbc website/bbc content online...
but yet they have ads on the site and now on their youtube videos?
jokers.
Eh, what? There is nothing stopping you looking at the BBC website without a tv license. Else it would only be available to a percentage of the British population, which clearly isn't the case.
Antiprophet - 21 May 2009 - 23:52
well god knows I can't find it now, but in 2001/2002 TVL took a man to court for having no tv licence.
he had no tv, just a computer on dial up and because he had loaded the bbc news homepage, he was fined about a grand and forced to pay for a TVL.
maybe its changed now, im just glad i got outta the uk
+Kirkburn - 22 May 2009 - 00:09
if you don't have a tv licence you are not allowed to look at the bbc website/bbc content online...
but yet they have ads on the site and now on their youtube videos?
jokers.
Like already said, the license funded stuff does not and will not have ads.
BBC Worldwide is commercial, and had ads. Likewise, if you visit news.bbc.co.uk outside the UK, it has ads - because if you're outside the UK you're almost certainly not paying the license fee.
saasn - 21 May 2009 - 21:34
God since Google has owned Youtube it's been going down the ******* and this just makes it even worse.
Bhav - 21 May 2009 - 21:43
YouTube would have died a long long time ago if Google (or another large company) hadn't stepped in...it costs a lot to stream millions of videos 24hrs a day, ads are the only way it'll be remotely sustainable.
+Kirkburn - 22 May 2009 - 00:09
Indeed, especially at the moment, you will be seeing more and bigger ads around the web.
You can complain, but it's a financial necessity at the moment.
SuperHans - 22 May 2009 - 07:57
You can complain, but it's a financial necessity at the moment.
Agreed.
vette - 21 May 2009 - 21:50
Wish Stage6 was still around.
The Stylish Hobo - 21 May 2009 - 22:14
RIP. Thou art missed.
C_Guy - 21 May 2009 - 22:17
Granted, YouTube must cost a fortune to operate, but being owned by Google I am sure they will describe the advertising as an "enhancement" to the whole experience. Yet another insult to their audience intelligene.
Of course, they also seem to think "YouTube" and "professional content" somehow belong in the same sentence. Google just might be stealing the Reality Distortion Field away from Steve Jobs...
Kris Kris - 21 May 2009 - 22:29
I'd rather turn the "enhancement" down...
Kris Kris - 21 May 2009 - 22:28
I almost forgot YouTube since it has been blocked here in mainland China. YouTube/Google seems have got into some kind of financial crisis, I guess. :)
Really miss it...
A stupid idea, though. I hate that kind of ads ALMOST every time I play a video on BBC outside UK! Sometimes the ads got "jammed" and video no longer working. ****
DJGM - 21 May 2009 - 22:56
If YT place insert ads before any of my own videos I may upload to the site, especially if it's content
that I've created and own the copyright, I think I should receive a slice of the advertising revenue.
omnicoder - 21 May 2009 - 23:03
+1
Glendi - 21 May 2009 - 23:10
Yes, and Neowin should pay us for putting ads in certain Review posts in forum I own the copyright. >->
+M2Ys4U - 21 May 2009 - 23:22
10. Rights you licence
10.1 When you upload or post a User Submission to YouTube, you grant:
1. to YouTube, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence (with right to sub-licence) to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform that User Submission in connection with the provision of the Services and otherwise in connection with the provision of the Website and YouTube's business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels;
2. to each user of the Website, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, licence to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions to the extent permitted by the functionality of the Website and under these Terms.
10.2 The above licenses granted by you in User Videos terminate when you remove or delete your User Videos from the Website. The above licenses granted by you in User Comments are perpetual and irrevocable, but are otherwise without prejudice to your ownerships rights, which are retained by you as set out in paragraph 8.2 above.