San Francisco — Global search engine giant’s most popular video-sharing site YouTube and The Walt Disney Co. on Monday revealed that they have reached an agreement to produce new Disney-branded content for the web, which will bring original video series and feature “family-friendly” Disney programming to the halls of the biggest video-sharing site on the web, according to a New York Times report.
According to the New York Times, the deal, which consists of a pooled investment of $10 to $15 million, and will deliver originally produced content from Disney, which will be distributed on a “co-branded channel on Disney.com and YouTube,” the newspaper reported. It will also reportedly feature amateur video uploaded to YouTube.
Disney is also proposing to run user-generated materials on the channel on a regular basis, according to the report. The new channel will also include other related YouTube content.
Image Credit: (Greg Sandoval/CNET)
Disney Interactive and Google-owned YouTube said that the programming will be available solely on Disney.com and on YouTube and the “corresponding online video destinations” will launch in early 2012.
“Disney Interactive will produce and program the co-branded video destinations for both Disney.com and YouTube, furnishing a family-friendly experience for viewers across both platforms,” Disney and YouTube said.
News of the alliance arrives as competition intensifies for consumers’ entertainment dollars. Google itself recently announced a $100 million investment to develop original content for dozens of new YouTube channels.
The first new series will launch in February on the channel and will be a show based on a Disney’s puzzle app called “Where’s My Water.”
“With online video demand escalating and YouTube at the center of that trend, we see an opportunity for Disney Interactive and YouTube to bring Disney’s legacy of storytelling to a new generation of families and Disney enthusiasts on the platforms they prefer,” Disney Interactive co-president Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement.
“As we prepare to re-launch Disney.com in fall 2012, the Disney/YouTube destination will play a critical part in our next generation platform,” he said.
It is an outstanding deal for both companies because it helps them strengthen where they are the weakest. The impetus behind the deal is pretty obvious from Disney’s standpoint. For Disney, the greatest area of weakness is in digital distribution as well as in drawing in a larger online audience.
“It is essential to go where our audience is,” said Pitaro in the report. He added that the company wishes to “bring Disney’s heritage of storytelling to a new generation of families and Disney enthusiasts on the platforms they prefer.”
This apparently is just the first initiative in Disney’s plan to increase its exposure on the Internet. The company considers the deal as a path to web videos “that can be monetized rapidly.” The company has reported losses over the last few quarters, and Disney.com’s traffic is also down. In addition, the company recently renewed a licensing agreement with Netflix and inked a new deal with Amazon that will give both a crack at much of the same content.
Thus for Disney, YouTube’s fame gives their content a better chance to be seen.
Interestingly for YouTube, this seems like another move in the quality content direction. The video-sharing outfit on the other hand, stands to benefit by gaining an influx of premium original content. The Google-owned streaming site recently signed deals to bring a video rental service to the UK.
Barely late last month, YouTube officially announced that they would be focusing on new original content, with dozens of new channels packed with quality programming. It is all in an effort to establish the site as a rival to cable–a place where there is not just free content, but really good free content that can challenge standard television.
Moreover, YouTube channels will promote well-known personalities and producers from many different segments including film, food, sports, news and more. The first of these channels will go live this month, with more rolling out over the next year. You can check out some of the first entries and sign-up to be notified when they go live here.
In other Disney/Google connected news, The Muppets will be conducting a Google+ Hangout on Monday evening, 7:30 EST.
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