San Francisco — In a move to thwart new threats from Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and others in the emerging video on demand industry, Google’s popular online video sharing platform YouTube has acquired New York based original-video production and distribution platform “Next New Networks” to help contributors to YouTube make successful videos.
Next New Networks adds latest weapons ammunitions to YouTube’s arsenal: web video production. Furthermore, it is pretty essential because YouTube has so far established a name for itself by hosting user-generated content rather than producing its own broadcasts.
The newly-acquired NNN, which produces original programming and helps video makers distribute films and earn more money, will be on the forefront of testing new technologies, said YouTube.
However, Next New Networks will be a testing ground for research and development within YouTube, with the team collaborating with a larger majority of content partners and aspiring talents to help them succeed on YouTube, the Google subsidiary said Monday in a post on its official blog site.
The NNN team has formulated an effective platform for developing, packaging and building audiences around original web video programming, attracting over two billion views and six million subscribers across its partner networks of channels and shows, YouTube said. The company was founded in 2007 in New York.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and YouTube stressed that it was not getting into the content creation business.
The New York City-based startup began its operation four years ago and caters to popular networks, such as “Barely Political” and “Indy Mogul,” which it billed as the “filmmaking network for the YouTube generation.”
“At YouTube, we are focused on building a great technology platform for creators, and so we leave the actual creation of great videos to the people who do it best: our partners,” Pickett, said in a statement.
“But being a great platform for creators also means helping our partners get the tools and guidance they need to develop higher quality videos and drive bigger audiences to their work,” he added.
Furthermore to this new acquisition, Pickett also mentioned the company’s “YouTube Next”, a new program with training and education functions, that will help the video creators produce more professional content and accelerate their growth and success. The new team will start a series of YouTube Next branded programs and services, that will build on past partner programs, such as its Partner Grants Program that advanced funds to partners based on future YouTube revenue share.
The video sharing website said its partner program had skyrocketed to 15,000 partners last year, with the number of partners making over $1,000 a month up 300 percent since the beginning of 2010.
Now, YouTube is pressing hard to broaden its video offerings with more original content, and industry tracker eMarketer estimated that online video ad spending this year will increase to nearly 2 billion dollars, more than the predicted 1.42 billion in 2010.
Although YouTube says the acquisition of Next New Networks and the creation of the new group does not change the company’s focus on technology platforms for creators, leaving the actual creation of videos to its partners. Pickett did not mention how Google might use the technology platform.
Interestingly, Next New Networks, then, becomes a vehicle to attract unique original programming to YouTube that works to combat the threats from the likes of Hulu, Netflix and even iTunes. Google TV has yet to take off, so YouTube is evolving even while its parent company continues trying to figure it out.