Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Friday, October 10, 2008 at 12:02 PM PT

 

YouTube Gets CBS Shows, Pre-Rolls

Updated. In the first big network content coup it’s gotten in a long time, YouTube got access to some full-length episodes of old CBS shows today. The shows — five episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 (the original), five episodes of MacGyver, five episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, and 14 episodes of The Young and the Restless — will be accompanied by much more advertising than YouTube has ever shown on a per-video basis, including controversial (for YouTube) pre-roll ads.

While this is a concession for YouTube on multiple fronts, it’s an opportunity for the site to show it can bring its huge audience to these full episodes to start building a good reputation among networks.

CBS is the TV network most open to making syndication deals for its content. However, regular members of its Audience Network get a far better deal than YouTube, with full episodes of current shows being syndicated to TidalTV, blinkx, Joost, Veoh and others. Actually, anyone who uses a social network can add to their profile page current full episodes of CBS shows through a distribution deal with iWidgets. Update: The initial iWidgets release I linked to was actually incorrect, I’m told; iWidgets only has clips, not full episodes.

And I’m not even sure that any of the content YouTube got today is exclusive. You can find more than 100 full episodes of MacGyver on Veoh, for example.

As for the advertising, when I looked just now, a 46-minute episode of Beverly Hills 90210 on YouTube has a 15-second pre-roll ad for CBS’ Amazing Race Elimination Station that is played again in-stream (yes, the same exact ad) five more times over the course of the video. It’s totally different than what we regular YouTube viewers are accustomed to — usually if any in-stream advertising is shown, it’s a single overlay ad per video, and viewers must click on the overlay before any ad actually interrupts their stream.

YouTube has long said pre-roll ads were too intrusive for its audience, but over the last year it started to indicate that it might be open to new formats.

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Topic: Hitlines, Networks & Studios, Shows & Stars
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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. They have in-stream ad markers on the long form player. The overlay seems to be clickable link on the in-stream ad. Did you see other forms of overlay.

    Akash on October 10th, 2008 at 2:45 pm - Permalink

  2. [...] support the effort, Google is also experimenting with advertising [see NewTeeVee]. The content will be  supported with pre-, mid-, and post-roll ads. YouTube will get a revenue [...]

    YouTube adds select TV shows from CBS; takes aim at Hulu for long-form video content | last100 on October 11th, 2008 at 2:13 am - Permalink

  3. If TV networks insist on so many ads in their YouTube videos, people will simply watch other YouTube videos. Longform content has less of an advantage in a medium that favors the quantization of information.

    Mike Abundo on October 12th, 2008 at 12:10 am - Permalink

  4. [...] not contextual advertising. But YouTube also naysayed pre-rolls for most of its life before rolling them out on Friday. It’s actually a little strange that YouTube and Google didn’t do this [...]

    YouTube Tests Search Ads for Video « NewTeeVee on October 13th, 2008 at 8:25 pm - Permalink

  5. [...] scale, there are the YouTube ads that may not be good at selling products and are almost sure to annoy users.  And advertisers won’t be happy if they lose clicks due to something else Carlson covered: [...]

    Google Increasing Ad Saturation | Read HOT News and Make Money! on October 28th, 2008 at 6:06 am - Permalink

  6. [...] in line with the vibe we’ve been getting from YouTube, where they’re casting their recent win of full-length CBS TV episodes as the first of many premium content deals in the pipe. [...]

    YouTube to Offer Major Studio Films « NewTeeVee on November 6th, 2008 at 10:16 am - Permalink

  7. [...] Un po’ come è già accaduto con la CBS, che di recente ha stretto una partnership con YouTube per la trasmissione di episodi integrali di alcune serie televisive (da Beverly Hills [...]

    Hollywood pronta a sbarcare su YouTube » Panorama.it - Hitech e Scienza on November 7th, 2008 at 3:11 am - Permalink

  8. [...] Un po’ come è già accaduto con la CBS, che di recente ha stretto una partnership con YouTube per la trasmissione di episodi integrali di alcune serie televisive (da Beverly Hills [...]

    SuccedeOggi » Hollywood pronta a sbarcare su YouTube on November 8th, 2008 at 5:26 am - Permalink

  9. [...] Run longer stuff that will theoretically appeal to advertisers. Like, say, indie movies. Or shows from CBS. And now, a handful of movies from the MGM library, starring the likes of Chuck Norris (Bulletproof [...]

    YouTube’s Hulu Jr. Act: Chuck Norris, Yul Brynner Movies Coming To Google’s Video Site | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD on November 10th, 2008 at 2:45 am - Permalink

  10. [...] that is so prevalent on YouTube. In order to change that, the video giant has been locking up deals with CBS to offer full-length episodes of TV programs and MGM to offer full-length movies on the [...]

    YouTube Adds Freemantle Content « NewTeeVee on November 11th, 2008 at 8:07 am - Permalink

  11. [...] Schmidt has recently been making public remarks to that effect. Some recent ad products include: pre-, mid- and post-roll ads lasting 15 seconds for long-form CBS content (and now MGM), affiliate links to iTunes and Amazon, automatically [...]

    YouTube Formally Launches Sponsored Videos « NewTeeVee on November 12th, 2008 at 12:36 pm - Permalink

  12. [...] already on the iPhone and is making aggressive moves to acquire premium content with the likes of CBS and [...]

    Joost Launches iPhone App « NewTeeVee on November 29th, 2008 at 12:11 pm - Permalink

  13. [...] — have been doing so for some time now. And as TechCrunch notes, CBS already does this for YouTube uploads of its shows. There must be some truth in there about YouTube expanding the program, but the story seems [...]

    Progress on the Online Video Revenue Front « NewTeeVee on January 22nd, 2009 at 7:19 am - Permalink

  14. [...] its desperate quest for monetizable content, YouTube’s been signing premium content partners from CBS to MGM to Lionsgate. It’s also been prettying itself up for advertisers, offering videos in [...]

    FanTrust » Blog Archive » YouTube Hooking Up With William Morris? [NewTeeVee] on January 30th, 2009 at 9:51 am - Permalink

  15. [...] — have been doing so for some time now. And as TechCrunch notes, CBS already does this for YouTube uploads of its shows. There must be some truth in there about YouTube expanding the program, but the story seems [...]

    Progress on the Online Video Revenue Front | Viral Video Maker on February 15th, 2009 at 4:13 pm - Permalink

  16. [...] content haven’t been paying off. Although YouTube tried to amp up its premium content stock last year, the pace of those deals hasn’t picked up, and there’s actually been some backtracking [...]

    YouTube Is Missing a Golden Video Search Opportunity « NewTeeVee on March 15th, 2009 at 9:01 pm - Permalink

  17. [...] content, during which audiences are more tolerant of commercials. YouTube was on a bit of a premium content tear last year, but efforts in that arena have since petered [...]

    Google to Connect TV Ads with YouTube on March 27th, 2009 at 7:32 am - Permalink

  18. [...] becoming a premium content destination for a while now. It signed traditional media players such as CBS and MGM, it altered its rules to tame some of the naughtier content and design tweaks like ordered [...]

    Will Premium Content Kill the “You” in YouTube? on March 30th, 2009 at 9:55 am - Permalink

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