YouTube’s New Users: Denzel, Crowe, and Bay?
YouTube built its business around user-generated content, but more recently, has been looking to add more professionally produced video from the likes of CBS so it can offer more attractive options to advertisers. The company might be taking a turn back towards user-generated content with its latest move, albeit, with slightly more famous users.
The world’s #1 video site is “close to signing a deal” with the famous William Morris Agency, home to Hollywood stars like Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, and Michael Bay. According to The New York Times, the concept is to give top talent ownership in the videos they produce, using YouTube’s massive distribution to spread them virally.
While a deal is yet to be signed, this sounds like a more natural fit for YouTube than their attempts so far to go the Hulu route by adding TV shows and B (and C, and D) list movies. Celebrities – at least the savvy ones – are eager to use the Web to improve their image and popularity, and YouTube’s roots (beyond the illegal copyright content) are in user-generated, authentic content.
