YouTube Rules Out Return To Originals Despite TV Set Viewing Boom: 'We Have No Interest Whatsoever In Producing Our Own Content' — MIP London
YouTube has point-blank ruled out a return to original production, even as consumption of the site explodes on TV sets.
During a keynote interview at MIP London today at the IET London conference center, YouTube VP of EMEA Pedro Pina said there was no appetite 'whatsoever' to return to a YouTube Originals strategy.
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Instead, he outlined why the Google-owned site was sticking to aggregation and providing a platform for content creators 'from the kid in their bedroom to the biggest producer.'
'There are a lot of misconceptions about YouTube and fears associated to what YouTube represents and does,' said Pina. 'The first thing to say is we are an open platform. We exist to provide the ability for context creators, from the kid in the bedroom all the way to the biggest producers, to use the platform, upload content and make it available.
'The news inside the news is we have no interest whatsoever in producing our own content. We've tried it a little bit and did a few experiments.'
Interviewer Evan Shapiro, the producer and media exec, ventured YouTube had spent 'a lot of money' on YouTube Originals, which included sci-fi drama Origin and the first seasons of Cobra Kai, to which Pina quipped, 'moving on,' and added, 'We are known for 'Let's try, fail fast and move on.''
YouTube had pulled away from original scripted programming in 2018, but was still making unscripted shows until 2023. The original production group was broadly disbanded a year before in 2022 after the exit of Global Head of Original Content Susanne Daniels.
The news comes just weeks after YouTube CEO Neal Mohan revealed the platform that it now gets more of its total U.S. viewership on TV sets than on mobile devices. 'The 'new' television doesn't look like the 'old' television,' he observed in an annual letter to the YouTube community earlier this month.
Instead, Pina laid out the argument for YouTube as an aggregator and partner for content creators. '[Google parent] Alphabet as a company is just very good at producing platforms,' he said, referencing the likes of Android and Google TV.
'For us to be successful, we need other people to actually put the content in,' he said. 'Our commercial success will only exist with other people's content. Our mission is to give that content to users around the world, but in order to do that, we need to have it.'
Connected TV boom
Pina used his keynote to lay out how viewing on YouTube had shifted to connected TV around the world. 'Way back when, we started with desktop. Then we had laptops and moved into tablets and mobile became a thing,' he said. 'Now, it turns out users want to see us on the bigger screen in their home.
Pina said it had not been an active strategy to get viewers to watch YouTube on TV screens, and that it had, in fact, taken Google some time to 'realize' the shift in audience's preferences. He added that consumer behavior such as TV set upgrades made during the Covid-19 lockdown had driven change.
'Some of our highest stats on shorts is in the living room, and long form is, of course, also very present,' he said. 'This is not us shifting our strategy, but staying with the same strategy. We get the cues from the users.'
As Deadline has previously reported, YouTube has steadily been gaining overall share of viewing via TV sets as more viewers turn to streaming and cut the pay-TV cord, according to Nielsen. Earlier today, YouTube revealed its podcasts now draw in over one billion active viewers every month.
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