YouTube will now give people the opportunity to watch full-length episodes of some television shows.
The ability to view television shows that one may have missed is another way to promote use of YouTube, which has experienced staggering growth.
YouTube was designed for posting short, amateur videos that lasted only a few minutes. The idea for posting longer videos of television episodes has evolved from Internet users becoming more comfortable watching longer videos online and an increase in individuals' attention span from 2.6 minutes in July to 2.9 minutes a year ago.
"Dexter," "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Star Trek" will be showing on YouTube through a deal with CBS. Of great importance to YouTube's owner, Google, the longer videos will air advertisements before, during, and after each episode, which will hopefully help the nearly four-year-old video sharing site.
Executives at YouTube had previously refrained from the use of advertisements so as not to deter viewers from using the site in an attempt to avoid a 15-second commercial for a 45-second video. The extended length of the videos makes including commercials in the clip acceptable in the eyes of the viewers, as well as the fact that other network television Web sites are allowing commercials to run during full-length videos.
As YouTube branches out to include TV content, the site faces competition, most notably from Hulu, which reports more than 100 million video streams a month in comparison to YouTube's five billion video views recorded in July 2008. YouTube does account for 44 percent of all online video consumption in the United States.
Another feature YouTube has devised to encourage viewership is the new "theater view," a larger video player for longer content.
For more information on this new media topic, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/technology/internet/11tube.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=technology&pagewanted=print.
P.S. I'm so glad that I read this article, because I cannot wait to go back and watch all of the Beverly Hills, 90210 reruns on YouTube instead of purchasing the seasons on DVD!
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