The YouTube Original Channel Initiative was a $100 million program funded by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

in 2012 to bring original content onto

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. The original channel initiative was also meant to kick start Google TV. The channels are collectively known as "original", "premium" or "YouTube-funded" channels.

History

In September 2012, twenty of the 100 original channels started getting at least 1 million views a week. In October, YouTube introduced 60 new original channels. Google invested an additional $200 million into the original programming as well. The top 25 original programs also averaged around 1 million views per week at the time of the announcement. However, in November, YouTube ended funding for more than 60% of the approximately 160 channels it financed as part of the initiative. After cancellation, YouTube kept all incoming revenue from these channels that failed to recoup their initial investments. In November 2013, it was reported that the landing page for the original channels had become a redirect to a 404 error page, seemingly as a way for Google to remove any reference to the original channel initiative.

Content

The content of the YouTube Original Channel Initiative includes SourceFed, Young Hollywood, The Mom's View,

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Crash Course, BadTeeth, i am OTHER, The Pet Collective, Epic Level TV, Geek & Sundry, MyMusic, Frederator Networks' Cartoon Hangover
The Spangler Effect
and The Multiverse among several others. Most participants in the program created channels through their production companies. The program also partnered with celebrities from traditional media such as singer

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

and former professional basketball player

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

, who were partners with the dance channel DanceOn and the Comedy Shaq Network, respectively. One of ''

Tubefilter Tubefilter, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California, that operates media businesses focusing on the online entertainment industry. It publishes Tubefilter News, a blog targeted at the fans, creators, producers, influenc ...

''s articles includes a full list of the original channels, which differs from

's listing. ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. It is updated several times a day, with en ...

'' started tracking the weekly video view stats for all the channels part of YouTube's Original Channel Initiative in May 2012. Participants included: *

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973), also known mononymously as Pharrell, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and fashion designer. He first became known as one half of the music production duo ...

* Young Hollywood founder R.J. Williams * former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

star

* comedian Amy Poehler * actor Ashton Kutcher * ''

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

'' star Rainn Wilson * comedian Kenny Hotz * ''

Motor Trend ''Motor Trend'' is an American automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, and designated the first Car of the Year, also in 1949. Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles published ''Motor Trend'' until 1998, when it was sold ...

'' * SourceFed * spiritual doctor

Deepak Chopra Deepak Chopra (; ; born October 22, 1946) is an Indian-American author, New Age, new age guru, and alternative medicine advocate. A prominent figure in the New Age movement, his books and videos have made him one of the best-known and wealthi ...

* '' Modern Family'' actress Sofia Vergara * Hank and

John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...

(via

Vlogbrothers Vlogbrothers (sometimes stylized as VlogBrothers or vlogbrothers) is a video blog channel on YouTube. The Internet-based show is created and hosted by the Green brothers: John and Hank. The first incarnation of the brothers' online broadcasting ...

)

References

{{YouTube navigation 2010s in YouTube Internet properties disestablished in 2013 Internet properties established in 2012 YouTube-funded channels