YouTube and Disney Interactive Media have formed a partnership which aims to make the popular clip site more ‘child-friendly’ as well as re-invigorating the kids company’s stagnating web presence.
The basic premise for the union is that YouTube currently thrives from traffic created by ‘tubers searching for calamitous clips or viddying near-naked vloggers. All good fun, we think you’ll agree. But YouTube wants to clean-up its act become mother-approved ahead of introducing a dedicated Disney Channel, which will also help to bring Disney up-to-date and into a new era of ‘cool’ after losing many of its young followers (and those all-important profits) in recent years.
YouTube has, in the last few years, introduced a variety of high quality programming and has hooked up with top broadcasters and entertainment companies to deliver shows such as Dexter and full length movies from distributors such as Warner Brothers the company behind The Dark Knight and the Harry Potter franchise. The once humble user-uploaded video site with a ten-minute limit has come a long way in becoming a legit source of online entertainment and it’s all business for YouTube, with Head of Content Partnerships Robert Kyncl saying “It’s an acknowledgement that we want to work with the best brands and, yes, we expect this partnership to attract new advertisers.”
And from a business point of view, it’s a fantastic partnership. For us devoted ‘tubers, maybe not so much. We’re not sure how far the extents of the ‘clean-up’ will go, but Mickey and Pals could be preparing to replace the likes of CopperCab and Progeria Kid – and if YouTube starts pulling Jenna Marbles videos we’re not going to be pleased!
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