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YouTube brings full length Shows to the UK

19 November 2009: YouTube today announced a new “Shows” section of its site for UK users, bringing together in one place full length programming and clips from its professional content partners. This addition is one of many efforts underway to ensure that the YouTube community has access to as broad a range of video as possible, from bedroom vlogs and citizen journalism reports to music videos and full-length TV shows.

At launch, the Shows section includes almost 5,000 videos (of which almost 4,000 are full length programmes) from over 60 partners, totalling over 3,000 hours, and YouTube expects this to significantly increase in the coming months. The full length programming available today includes the first set of content made available under the recently announced partnership between Channel 4 and YouTube. As stated when the partnership between YouTube and Channel 4 was announced, the full range of Channel 4 content will be available in early 2010.

YouTube users in the UK will be able to click on the Shows tab on the homepage, or go directly to youtube.com/shows, to discover the programmes made available by YouTube’s partners.

Full length programmes available through the Shows section include: Peep Show, Derren Brown, Hollyoaks, the Inbetweeners, Gordon Ramsay’s F Word, Jamie at Home (all Channel 4), Dead Ringers, Day of the Triffids, This Is Dom Joly (all BBC Worldwide), Adult Swim (Turner Broadcasting), ITN News (ITN), Guinness World Records, He-Man (Classic Media), Baywatch (Fremantle), World Rally Championship (North One), The Listening Post, The Fabulous Picture Show (both Al Jazeera), and others.

The Shows section also brings together clips of programmes including Wallace and Gromit (Aardman), Top Gear, The Mighty Boosh, Eastenders, QI, Spooks (all BBC Worldwide), Mr Bean (MyVideoRights / Tiger Aspect) and others.

All programmes will be available free-of-charge. Where the content owner has enabled this, the programmes will be supported by advertising. For example, Channel 4’s long form content will carry advertisers such as Virgin Media, Universal, Orange, Samsung and Pepsi.

In recent months YouTube has introduced features that enhanced the YouTube experience for those watching longer videos, including the option to view them in high definition where the original upload file is of sufficient quality. YouTube serves over 1 billion video streams every day, and over 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Patrick Walker, YouTube’s Director of Video Partnerships, said:
“The YouTube community has always enjoyed the vibrant range of video on the site, from amateur make-up videos to professional TV highlights and everything inbetween. The Shows section of the site will make it easier for users to discover videos from the biggest names in British broadcasting, and help our content partners reach new audiences and generate new revenues.”

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