YouTube launched in 2005 as a video sharing platform, and was acquired by Google (now Alphabet) in 2006. It has built an entire community of creators that run channels dedicated to topics like gaming, tech reviews, and beauty. It also houses news videos and entertainment such as music videos, movie trailers, and clips from late-night TV shows.
YouTube’s rapid growth has not been without problems. YouTubers typically make money from ads that run in front of their videos, but if they break the platform’s rules, their channels and videos can be demonetized. Executives and moderators have worked to combat harassment, misinformation, terrorist propaganda, hate content, and other abuse.
The Verge runs two YouTube channels, The Verge and Verge Science.
Close out the Halloween season with these creepy, weird, and unsettling videos from YouTube.
Meta settled the latest set of claims about how its design affected a teen’s mental health, the parties confirm. YouTube and TikTok previously settled, leaving Snap the last defendant standing. Meta spokesperson Liza Crenshaw says settlements like this are common in this process. There’s plenty more left to be tried.
[The New York Times]
As reported by Business Insider, Instagram offered some YouTube creators $50,000 to post videos to its new “Features” video format, while others received offers up to $500,000. “We’ve been public about the fact that we are funding Features content directly with some creators right now to support them,” a Meta spokesperson tells Business Insider.
[Business Insider]
The app has a new, “simplified” top bar, where you’ll find tabs for things like subscriptions, Live, Music, and custom feeds, YouTube says. The custom feeds will stay in that top bar, according to YouTube Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie.
When unusual activity is detected on an account, the platform will now temporarily pause features for 24 hours, including uploading or updating videos, livestreaming, creating or adjusting playlists, uploading thumbnails, and making private videos public. Full feature access will be restored once the account’s security is verified.
The Independent reports an upcoming government white paper will include plans to extend the UK’s £180 (about $240) annual TV Licence — which is required to watch broadcast TV, BBC iPlayer, and live TV on streaming services — to cover all online streaming content, including Prime Video, Netflix, Disney Plus, and YouTube. Yikes.
[The Independent]
The “Ask YouTube” feature, which pulls uses AI to generate a search results page populated with text and suggested videos to watch, popped up on mobile as an experiment in August. I tested the web version earlier this year, and in a few minutes using the mobile version, it’s pretty similar.
The broadcaster announced that viewers in the UK and US can now watch a 24-hour news feed via the BBC News YouTube channel, with plans to expand access to Poland, Kenya, Australia and Nigeria soon. This is part of the BBC’s plan to access broader and younger adiences via YouTube’s platform as its traditional license-paying TV broadcast market continues to decline.
The video platform has reportedly been in discussions with publishers in recent months. The feature could launch as soon as next year, and YouTube has considered bundling it with its $16-per-month Premium subscription. Still, after launching a music streaming service this feels like an obvious next step for YouTube to compete against Spotify.
[Wall Street Journal]
Soon, YouTubers will be able to A/B test multiple cuts of the same video to see which hook, script, or edit performs best with their audiences. The company told me the different versions will only be shown to a very small segment of people — but as Marques Brownlee explains, it could get weird. Will people argue in comments while watching two different videos? What happens to timestamps? And who’s the feature really for?
The company says it will “reduce the reach” of Shorts content that’s re-uploaded without significant changes in an effort to prioritize “original content.” Instagram has made similar promises — but that hasn’t stopped swarms of anonymous accounts from taking over social media feeds through a practice known as clipping. I wrote about the ecosystem in May.
The Watch With live reactions feature is being expanded to all long-form videos later this year. Additional features are coming in 2027, including livestreamer matchmaking, interactive fan funding on co-hosted streams, and automatic speech translation and dubbing.
[blog.youtube]
Along with a bunch of AI news today, YouTube music exec Lyor Cohen announced a renewed agreement with concert promoter Goldenvoice to keep streaming both weekends of the Coachella music festival for the next four years.
This continues an arrangement that will hit 15 years next April, despite Bloomberg’s report of competing bids from the likes of Netflix and Amazon. It also says that in the future we’ll see more pre-event programming, as well as mini-documentaries and other videos about artists between sets.
This builds on the feature introduced in May which allows users to build a custom video feed based on AI prompt descriptions of your interests, moods, or favorite topics. The expansion means you can create and save more than one custom feed to your home screen, with YouTube saying it’ll be available for users in the US on web, mobile, and TVs “soon.”
YouTube is expanding its likeness detection tool to include not just facial matches, but vocal matches too. At the company’s Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, executives teased the upcoming expansion that will allow creators to monitor potential synthetic soundalikes posted to the platform.
The original likeness detection feature started testing with creators and eventually was opened to anyone with a YouTube account — the company has essentially created its own deepfake monitoring and takedown regime.
You’ll also be able to unlock your account with the YouTube mobile app. Read all the details in this YouTube support post. This is a smart feature!
If you liked the pilot animatic for Kiana Khansmith’s Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to Be a Magical Girl, you’re going to love the Mercury Filmworks-produced, fully animated version of the first episode that just hit YouTube.
A selection of Binsky’s videos will appear on Netflix starting September 19th, similar to the streamer’s deals with Kevin Langue, Nick DiGiovanni, and Mythical Entertainment, as reported by Variety. YouTube has reportedly offered creators millions not to cross-post their videos to Netflix.
If you subscribe to YouTube TV’s main $82.99 / month plan or standalone Sports package, you can now access live sports and other content from ESPN Unlimited directly within the YouTube TV app.
YouTube TV started allowing users to connect ESPN Unlimited to their accounts in July, as part of a carriage agreement reached by Google and Disney last year.
HarperCollins probably dropped a pretty penny to get Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and James Patterson to collaborate on their newly released novel, The Most Dangerous Games. But Semafor reports that the publisher might have a hard time making that money back due to the book’s very, very low pre-sales.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly highlighted the book’s pre-sale numbers rather than post-launch sales.
He admitted to being “scared” but excited about his new YouTube channel in his first video, but said that after 30 years making movies, he wants to “undo whatever stigmas are in my head or in anybody’s head.” Shyamalan dives into his Signs filmmaking diary in his second video on the channel.
It’s planning to run full-page ads in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times on Thursday, according to NYT reporter Mike Isaac, on the heels of Meta’s $17 billion settlement with state AGs. Meta is using the settlement to urge its top competitors to take on similar restrictions.
The stations initially launched earlier this year for as a pilot for some music artists, but YouTube said Friday that the feature is expanding to formats including “creator content, media channels, podcasts, and select new music artists.” A “limited” number of creators will be able to try the “experiment” to start.
[YouTube test features and experiments]
It would have been the next bellwether in the group of cases tried in a Los Angeles state court. In the first, Meta and YouTube were ordered to pay $6 million total. After settling with TikTok, the teen’s lawyer told The New York Times, she wanted to “resume her life.”
[The New York Times]
YouTube is “close an agreement with several partners” though hasn’t signed any deals yet, according to Bloomberg.
Netflix has been paying YouTube creators, including Alan Chikin Chow, Nick DiGiovanni, and Mythical Entertainment, to post their videos on Netflix the same time they hit YouTube, Bloomberg recently reported.
The “Ask YouTube” conversational search experience that YouTube started testing in April is now rolling out to the mobile app. It’s available for signed-in users in the US who are 13 or older, and can be found by tapping the “Ask” option in the YouTube search bar.
The new practice mode offers creators a chance test things out privately before really going live.
