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Google’s YouTube has begun testing a dramatic departure in content and advertising, adding 15 50-minute TV episodes from Star Trek, Beverly Hills 90210, and MacGyver and with prominent new ads.

“We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you,” Google said on its YouTube blog on Friday.

It’s an experiment in video display and advertising, too, with ads for Research in Motion’s Blackberry and Intel’s Centrino chip technology showing prominently on the videos I watched. The TV shows are preceded by a 15-second pre-roll ad, and YouTube will show mid-roll and post-roll ads as well, according to the blog posting. “As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows,” Google said.

The shows also feature new display possibilities that set off the ads–no doubt the “in-chrome ads” that Chief Executive Eric Schmidt referred to earlier this year when discussing the high priority of making more money from YouTube. A new “theater view” sports bright ads against an otherwise darker screen, wrapping the video in deep red faux curtains. And the “lights-out” mode retains the traditional YouTube interface, but with the darker screen and relatively bright ad.

The TV shows are all from CBS, which owns CNET News.

The content is tagged with a new film strip icon to indicate that it’s different from conventional YouTube videos. The icon shows in search results, too.

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YouTube beams up Star Trek for long-form video, prominent new ads

Now showing on YouTube: Star Trek.

(Credit: Google)

Google’s YouTube has begun testing a dramatic departure in content and advertising, adding 15 50-minute TV episodes from Star Trek, Beverly Hills 90210, and MacGyver and with prominent new ads.

“We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you,” Google said on its YouTube blog on Friday.

It’s an experiment in video display and advertising, too, with ads for Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and Intel’s Centrino chip technology showing prominently on the videos I watched. The TV shows are preceded by a 15-second pre-roll ad, and YouTube will show mid-roll and post-roll ads as well, according to the blog posting. “As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows,” Google said.

The shows also feature new display possibilities that set off the ads–no doubt the <a href=”“>”in-chrome ads” that Chief Executive Eric Schmidt referred to earlier this year when discussing the high priority of making more money from YouTube. A new “theater view” sports bright ads against an otherwise darker screen, wrapping the video in deep red faux curtains. And the “lights-out” mode retains the traditional YouTube interface, but with the darker screen and relatively bright ad.

The TV shows are all from CBS, which owns CNET News.

The content is tagged with a new film strip icon to indicate that it’s different from conventional YouTube videos. The icon shows in search results, too.

Update 3:23 p.m. PDT: YouTube’s long-form move has been expected for months, and now Google will begin to see how well viewers take to the idea.

Milking more money from YouTube has been a top priority for Google this year, and the new content and ads clearly are a part of that. They also show the increasing sophistication of Google’s relationships with studios, which with the exception of litigant Viacom, have been warming to YouTube in some cases.

Schmidt has said the right way to pair advertising with YouTube’s vast and fast-growing video collection is the “holy grail,”

YouTube features 'theater mode' that lends prominence to the video and the ads.

(Credit: CNET News)

Excerpted from:
YouTube beams up ‘Star Trek’ for long-form video

The once financially-juggernaut world of online advertising seems to be coming face to face with these mortal times. In March, back in happier times, a report by eMarketer projected that online ad spending would rise by 23% this year.

A few days ago, eMarketer reported about the online ad spending data for 2008. Though the numbers seem “generally strong,” showing sustained growth in a variety of advertising categories, classified ad spending was down by more than 5%.

Source:
Will Online Advertising Survive the Meltdown?

Glam Media, that digital-ad company that keeps expanding beyond its original base of celebrity gossip and fashion, has launched a new section: Glam Luxury, targeting high-end brand enthusiasts and the ad dollars that love them.

At launch, the headlining advertiser is (you guessed it), Swarovski, the jewel manufacturer that spawned a zillion awful iPhone cases.

So far, there are 35 participating sites geared toward affluent audiences that have agreed to be part of Glam Luxury and run its ads in exchange for some perks, like syndication in a Glam e-newsletter and access to a revenue-sharing video platform. Among the third-party sites are BlackBook.com, Travels in Taste, and Luxique, as well as existing Glam participants such as Apartment Therapy and Refinery 29.

It might seem a little bit silly, even tasteless, to be launching a luxury brand ad network in the face of a serious economic crisis, but Glam’s stance is that Glam Luxury should actually help. Pinpointing audiences still willing to splurge on jewelry, handbags, and vacations, the company said, will be financially efficient and ultimately help profits.

“Glam Luxury is more relevant for luxury marketers than ever before,” Joe Lagani, Glam’s vice president of brand sales, said in a release. “The words, images, and thoughts that surround a luxury brand must reflect the current times, with a speed and adaptability the high-end marketer requires. Glam Media provides marketers with the right audience, environment, and reach, and enough flexibility to change with marketplace dynamics.”

But perhaps in a sign of economic belt tightening, Glam hasn’t hired a new “editor” for Glam Luxury, as it has with new content areas launched in the recent past. Instead, Glam Living’s editorial director, Erika Lenkert, will oversee Glam Luxury as well.

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Glam’s next target: Market-blithe brand lovers

So maybe YouTube’s business model won’t be so dependent on advertising after all. In a post on the official Google blog entitled “I Clicked To Buy, And I Liked It” (a nod to singer Katy Perry), the company detailed a new “E-Commerce Platform” strategy that encourages the purchase of music, video, and games on the video-sharing site.

The first step in the roll-out of the E-Commerce Platform is now live for YouTube users in the U.S. It’s a simple affiliate partnership with Amazon MP3 and Apple’s iTunes Store, much like the ones that streaming-music sites like iLike and MySpace Music already have in place: YouTube will be adding purchase links to the digital music retailers for music videos that were uploaded by participating record labels (right now it appears to be limited to EMI Group). This also extends to the Amazon download of the Electronic Arts game Spore, with more game downloads coming down the road.

Over the next few months, YouTube’s E-Commerce Platform will not only expand beyond the U.S., but it will also add more partnerships in the fields of television, film, publishing (e-books, perhaps?) and beyond.

“Our vision is to help partners across all industries–from music, to film, to print, to TV–offer useful and relevant products to a large, yet targeted audience, and generate additional revenue from their content on YouTube beyond the advertising we serve against their videos,” the post on the Google blog explained.

Affiliate partnerships give Google an additional source of revenue for YouTube, which it acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006. Until this point, YouTube had generated revenue strictly through advertising–and it hasn’t exactly been a smash hit. Now, of course, the question is just how much affiliate sales can pull in as an alternate revenue stream.

The news comes on the heels of Google’s announcement that it would be venturing into in-game advertising.

See the original post here:
Google introduces YouTube click-to-buy