Google Overhauling YouTube With Social ‘Channels’ for TV Viewing

written by: Gianluigi Cuccureddu

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Published on Sunday, 10 April 2011 15:45

Wall Street Journal reports that Google is overhauling Youtube to push more aggressively onto TV screens, competing head-to-head with broadcast and cable television for ad dollars:

The site is planning a series of changes to its home page to highlight sets of “channels” around topics such as arts and sports. About 20 or so of those channels will feature several hours of professionally produced original programming a week, some of these people said. Additional channels would be assembled from content already on the site.

LostRemote adds:

YouTube, Netflix and Hulu — call them the “new networks” — will usher in a new era of social TV. The Journal says that YouTube’s channels will debut with new social features that will let users see what video is popular among their friends, among other things. Netflix is also working on “extensive” Facebook integration, and Hulu CEO Jason Kilar recently called social TV a “game changer.”

Where's Facebook in this all? If there's one social network which could change the game massively, it's Facebook. I'm still betting on Facebook TV as a game changing diffusion where TV is being infused in a social network. This is the big difference in a product-centric approach versus a consumer-centric one. If Facebook is able to offer all neccesary enablers for both suppliers and users, why would one need other networks, portals etc, if it can add one more utility/purpose to Facebook?

Youtube has the content, Facebook the users, which will be the key to success in Social TV, time will tell soon.