Channel 4 in Deal to Offer Full Complement of Catch-Up Programming on YouTube

YouTube and UK terrestrial broadcaster, Channel 4, announced last week that they have signed a content deal that will make full episodes of the latter's original programs available on-demand, free-of-charge, in the UK in the coming months. According to the parties, the deal will provide Channel 4 with additional ad inventory and reach (note: YouTube recently announced that it is serving over a billion video streams each day), and marks the first time that a broadcaster anywhere in the world has made a comprehensive catch-up schedule available on YouTube.

Under the terms of the deal, Channel 4 will make its 4oD VOD catch-up line-up of new programs available on YouTube shortly after their linear broadcast, including series that have proven particularly popular with online audiences, such as "Skins," "Hollyoaks," "the Inbetweeners" and "Peep Show." In addition, the deal will provide UK YouTube users with access to around 3,000 hours of full-length programming from the Channel 4 archive at any given time, including such shows as "Brass Eye," "Derren Brown," "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" and "Teachers." Channel 4 programs are slated to begin appearing on YouTube in the coming months and the service is expected to be full launched by early next year. The service will be advertising-supported, and will be geo-restricted to the UK.

While the parties have not disclosed the deal's financial terms, they say it will be non-exclusive (Channel 4 will be able to continue offering 4oD on its own Web site and will also be able to offer it on third-party sites), that it will run for an initial term of at least three years, and that they will share advertising revenues "on an agreed formula." Channel 4 claims that the deal will create "significant value" for itself and its independent production partners, including additional revenues that it will invest in creating original content. It says it will cooperate with YouTube on additional monetization opportunities as new technology evolves.

The deal will give Channel 4 a branded presence on YouTube and will allow it to sell advertising around its content on the site. According to the parties, the deal will also allow the broadcaster to sell advertising around some non-Channel 4 content on YouTube, thus expanding the amount of inventory available to its sales team and "bringing its considerable expertise in advertising around full-length TV content to the YouTube platform." In addition, the parties say, the deal will help Channel 4 develop its advertising sales proposition in digital, including the use of YouTube's demographic targeting tools to target advertising against Channel 4 content on the video-sharing platform.

The new deal builds on an existing relationship between Channel 4 and YouTube: Channel 4 was the first broadcaster to sell pre-roll ads on YouTube clips and to incorporate an offline sponsor into an online YouTube package (Lucozade, "Big Brother"). "Channel 4 has a clear lead among commercial broadcasters in video-on-demand and we're convinced extending our relationship with YouTube will help consolidate that position," Jon Gisby, Channel 4's director of future media and technology, said in a prepared statement. "The deal will grow our share of the audience and enhance our advertising sales proposition. It will create new advertising inventory for Channel 4 Sales in digital media and will help us realize our ambition to be the UK's leading sales house for video-on-demand." Added YouTube's director of partnerships, Patrick Walker: "We know that the YouTube community is enthusiastic about full-length programming on the site, and we've been working hard to create the right environment for more broadcasters to make their content available with the right branding, the right advertising formats and the right level of control over advertising sales. This partnership demonstrates our commitment to bringing an even greater range of content to YouTube and we look forward to other similar agreements to come."