While Hulu and Yahoo announced new original shows in an effort to compete with television for new viewers at its upfront presentation before advertisers, YouTube didn’t announce any new program. Instead, executives from Google touted its success and said that it doesn’t need to compete with TV because it already won the battle.
While Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt wouldn’t say if Internet viewing is going to eclipse TV viewing, he said Wednesday that “the future is now,” reports The Associated Press. Schmidt said that the recent 1 billion unique viewers milestone will look like nothing soon. “Wait until you get to 6 (billion) or 7 billion,” he said, thinking about the Third World.
CNET reports that Schmidt did say that “Video is becoming the global shared experience.” The executives noted that users are watching over 6 billion hours of video a month on the site.
Margo Georgiadis, president of the Americas for YouTube, told the advertisers, “If you want to win with that under 40 generation, you've got to be on YouTube.”
Snoop Lion (or Snoop Dogg), Macklemore, Felicia Day and others performed at the event, which YouTube called a “brandcast.” It was part of the Digital NewsFront events, which are similar to the events the networks host every year. But YouTube’s was not only different from its competitors, but also its own event from last year.
Last year, they announced a collection of original programming, but none of these were mentioned Wednesday.
“I thought that YouTube was like TV, but it isn't. I was wrong,” Robert Kyncl, YouTube's global head of content, noted. “TV is one-way. YouTube talks back.”
The company did mention DreamWorks Animation’s recent $33 million acquisition of the Awesomeness TV channel.