YouTube Adds Full-length TV Shows

The Google-owned video Web site has moved to put full-length television shows on its site for the first time. YouTube has hosted a bewildering and attractive variety of video clips, the vast majority of which have been less than ten minutes in length. Now, the company has finalized a deal with CBS to offer shows such as Star Trek, McGyver, Beverly Hills 90210, and The Young and Restless.

In some ways this new offering is more of a change in length and legality than an abrupt left turn. There have been small segments of television shows on YouTube almost since the beginning, but these also adhered more or less to the ten-minute time limit and were not sanctioned by the owners of the content. 

Often, such segments were removed after the copyright owner complained about their inclusion on the site. That will no longer be the case, at least for the content covered by the deal with CBS.

YouTube also said that it was in negotiation with other providers of lengthier content, specifically mentioning other television networks. This announcement follows on the heels of the introduction of their TheaterView product, which is aimed at the provision of a higher quality online viewing experience.

It is not too far a stretch of the imagination to assume that these two new services are somehow related.

The new services also put YouTube head to head with Hulu, competing directly for the full-length television show viewer. Hulu currently has more of this sort of content than YouTube, but YouTube has the lion’s share of the Web video audience.

It is estimated that YouTube has 100 times the viewers that Hulu has. With viewership being the key number in this marketplace, and with a business plan that now includes full-length television content, YouTube (and Google) are positioned to make a serious run at their competition.