According to AllThingsD, AOL and YouTube have effectively endorsed a deal that will bring “branded channels” with content from sites such as Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Moviefone and even clips from the recently launched HuffPost Live over to the video streaming platform. While AOL earlier offer some tidbits on YouTube, this move is considered to better reinforce and highlight the vid work from properties like the ones mentioned above — which, of course, could only be accomplished by reaching a new “everyone wins” type of revenue sharing agreement.
Image: BBDO Digital Lab (YouTube).
Previously, AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong has been against putting the company’s content on the world’s largest streaming video site. Besides, AOL by itself ranks among the top 10 highest trafficked video producers, which indicates that it is more than capable of generating revenue on its own. However, the new partnership with YouTube should prove very beneficial.
Moving beyond under the agreement, the company says it will be distributing videos from 22 branded YouTube channels for its various properties. Some of those include channels for TechCrunch, Huffington Post, and Moviefone. The terms of the deal allow AOL to gain a cut of the revenue from each channel, much like YouTube does with various music labels and television properties. AOL will get to customize its channels with backgrounds and other promotional materials as well as determine exactly how (and via which devices) viewers are able to watch its content.
According to the company’s statement, “The AOL brand includes an incredible array of premium video content from some of the most highly trafficked sites on the Web, and this deal provides us with a way to expose that content to a vast new audience,” said Ran Harnevo of AOL’s video division.
Image Source: (Engadget.com)
Harnevo further said that, “AOL and YouTube are two of the biggest brands in online video today, which marks this deal an important milestone, not just for us, but for the industry as a whole.”
Apparently, “With a series of key acquisitions in the online video space in recent years, AOL has become one of the dominant forces in the industry,” AOL said in its announcement. “In April, the company unveiled The AOL On Network, a platform of AOL’s complete video offerings and a curated video hub for consumers that offers premium, short-form video across 14 content channels. By August, The AOL On Network attracts approximately 61 million unique visitors per month and is number one in categories including Autos, Business, Style, Home, Health, Food, Travel and Tech.”
As a matter of fact, this deal with YouTube will certainly open a new revenue stream for AOL, which will handle ad sales through its sales team. Apart from this revenue generating pact, the company has also announced the launch of Project Devil 2, the next phase of its branded display advertising product.
However, of late, AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong, a former Google executive, has been striving to modernize AOL into an advertising-driven media company and shed its reputation as an Internet service provider.