YouTube to pay users
Popular video sharing site promises to reward most popular, prolific contributors
Last Updated: Friday, May 4, 2007 | 8:20 PM ET
CBC News
Related
External Links
(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window)
YouTube Inc. will start paying "the most popular and prolific" members of its video sharing website, the company announced Thursday.
"Up until now there’s been a distinction between the content you create and the content created by YouTube's professional content partners," a post on YouTube's corporate blog stated.
"We want to start changing some of the perception here. Which is why we’re adding several of the most popular and prolific original content creators from the YouTube community to our partnership program."
YouTube will initially move a handful of its top video-posters who have "built and sustained large, persistent audiences" to a revenue-sharing arrangement similar to those enjoyed by broadcasters such as CBS and NBC, professional sports organizations such as the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League, as well as music and other entertainment companies, including Universal Music Group and video game publisher Electronic Arts.
Among the first members to be able to take advantage of the promotional and financial opportunities under the new system is New Zealand actress Jessica Lee Rose. Rose became an online sensation, with millions viewing her fictitious diary-like clips posted under the name "lonelygirl15," in which she portrayed herself as a teenager named Bree.
YouTube will place ads next to videos and give the members who created the clips a cut of the income. YouTube will choose which contributors will be paid, but those contributors will be able to choose which of their videos will be accompanied by ads.
People who want to be considered for the partner program can apply through a form on YouTube's website.
YouTube is being sued by Viacom Inc. for alleged copyright infringement. Earlier this year, Viacom forced the site to take down about 100,000 videos.
Google Inc. bought YouTube for $1.65 billion US in 2006 in an all-stock deal.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Emailed rave rape pictures earns teen probation
- A teen convicted of emailing pictures of an alleged rape at a rave in Pitt Meadows, B.C., that were eventually posted by others on Facebook has been sentenced to 12 months probation for distributing obscene material. more »
- Prince George, B.C., mourns 5 killed in crash
- People in Prince George, B.C., are feeling a deep sense of loss the morning after five locals were killed in a fiery crash Thursday, five kilometres outside McLeese Lake. more »
- Quebec man, 76, shot and killed in Florida
- A Canadian man was slain during trailer park standoff Thursday. more »
- Crane drops section of Port Mann bridge into B.C. river
- A crane tipped off its tracks on the Port Mann bridge construction project east of Vancouver on Friday morning and dropped a segment of the bridge into the Fraser River. more »
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- Ancient Antarctic lake may harbour microbial life
- If scientists find microbes in a frigid lake 3.2 kilometres beneath the thick ice of Antarctica, it will illustrate once again that somehow life finds a way to survive in the strangest and harshest places, and it will offer hope that life exists beyond Earth. more »
- Game developer seeks $400K, makes $1M in a day
- Videogame studio Double Fine went on the website Kickstarter to raise $400K US in a month to develop a new game. They reached that target in a matter of hours. more »
- McGill to review asbestos findings after CBC report
- McGill University says it is reviewing the findings of a major research project into the asbestos industry and cancer caused after a CBC News investigation raised questions about links between the research and industry interests. more »
- Italian pig disease requires Canadian vigilance
- An outbreak of a pig disease in Italy could threaten Canadian swine exports if it makes its way across the Atlantic, says a health management expert at Charlottetown's Atlantic Veterinary College. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Glacier Discovery Walk: Will the visitor centre enhance the view? Feb. 10, 2012 3:17 PM Environment minister Peter Kent has announced the construction of a new Glacier Discovery Walk and visitor centre on the Icefields Parkway in Jasper National Park. It raises the issue of how to balance commercial development in our National Parks against the preservation of the last refuges of wilderness.
Quirks & Quarks
- February 11: Inside the Mind of a Neandertal Feb. 8, 2012 3:24 PM Can we get inside the mind of a species that's been dead for 30,000 years? A new book, How to Think Like a Neanderthal, suggests we can. The authors reconstruct a creature like us in many ways, but with important differences.
Latest Features
- RCMP shooting suspect hoped to surrender before arrest
- Quebec man, 76, shot and killed in Florida
- Family of 4 and friend killed in fiery B.C. crash
- Shafia daughter's boyfriend wishes he 'stood up' to family
- Sex in police car costs RCMP officer 10 days pay
- SNC-Lavalin drops 2 executives tied to Gadhafi family
- Ont. van crash responder appalled by gawkers
- Mentally disabled witness's right to testify affirmed
- Canada pulls out of NATO surveillance project
