Popular video-sharing website YouTube launched a Canadian version at an event in Toronto on Tuesday. Company officials said the new site will give Canadian users the chance to increase their exposure.
"We're very excited to bring a local version of YouTube to Canada, and are committed to continuing to improve the YouTube experience for our Canadian users," YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley said in a release. "Our goal is to satisfy the unique needs of the local users and to further strengthen Canada's vibrant YouTube community."
In a blog entry, titled "Hello, Canada!" the YouTube team wrote that some of the site's top users are Canadian, and "in developing a territory-specific YouTube site, we wanted to bring YouTube to you, in your language, while making local talent more visible and getting closer to our users around the world."
YouTube.ca will feature content from Sony BMG Canada, the Canadian Football League and the CBC.
The CBC has been showcasing content on YouTube.com since March, including clips from The Rick Mercer Report and Royal Canadian Air Farce, as well as short films and archival footage.
"YouTube exposes our content to a huge number of viewers that we wouldn't have access to on any other platform," said Sharon Hanson, who works in digital programming and business development at the CBC.
Further CBC content, from shows such as Little Mosque on the Prairie and The Tudors, may be coming, but that depends on negotiating rights, she said.
Hanson said it will be easier for Canadians to find made-in-Canada content on YouTube.ca.
"What happens in the current environment is that Canadian content gets lost, whether it's on the internet or other digital platforms," she said.
Luis Garcia, international product manager for YouTube, said the content on both YouTube.com and YouTube.ca will be the same, but the new site will promote Canadian submissions.
"The only thing that's different is that this is just a Canadian lens into that content, so if a user wants to get the Canada point of view into that global body of content, then they're able to do that," he said.
For launch day, the company asked Canadian user TheWineKone to make a video promoting Canada. The welcome video, boasting a mere 39 views at announcement time and labelled with a "YouTube is now in Canada!" banner, documents TheWineKone's failed search for Canadian flags waving in the wind. Instead, he finds them hanging limply, and after a minute-and-a-half declares, "YouTube Canada's the place to be!"
Other featured videos include "Canada vs. America: who has cuter kittens?," a music video from Vancouver indie-rock band Said the Whale and a submission called "Canada … What does it mean to you?" where a user asked 18 people around the world what they thought about Canada.
In addition to allowing Canadian users the chance to increase their exposure, the site will enable them to better connect with one another, Garcia said.
"Connectivity is another great benefit," said Garcia. "Users who have garnered a worldwide audience on YouTube sometimes have gotten lost in terms of being able to find like-minded users or like-minded content providers who are geographically close," he said.
YouTube has already signed agreements with Canadian content partners including the CBC, the CFL, Dose.ca, NewsCanada and Sony BMG Canada.
The Canadian site is one of 15 country-specific YouTube sites.
With files from the Canadian PressShare Tools
Top News Headlines
- Everest victim's family asks for government help
- The family of a Toronto woman who died in pursuit of her lifelong dream to climb Mount Everest is asking the Canadian government for help in bringing her body back to Canada. more »
- Employment Insurance review boards to be scrapped
- The federal government is scrapping two review boards used by people appealing decisions made about their employment insurance. more »
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Raw stories about bullying emerged when a video booth was set up inside a Quebec high school. more »
- Canada ending 'Buffalo shuffle' for visas, closing consulate
- The federal government is shutting the Canadian consulate in Buffalo less than two years after costly renovations, while dropping a requirement for visas to be renewed outside the country, CBC News has learned. more »
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- SpaceX capsule docked at International Space Station
- The privately bankrolled unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule has been securely bolted to the Harmony module of the International Space Station. . more »
- Bonavista, N.L., 'coyote' was really wolf, tests confirm
- Wolves have not been seen in Newfoundland since around 1930 and were believed to have been hunted to extinction on the island, but genetic tests have confirmed that an 82-pound animal shot on the Bonavista Peninsula in March was, in fact, a wolf. more »
- Once-rare argus butterfly thriving thanks to climate change
- Global warming is threatening the existence of many species, such as the giant polar bear, but in the case of Britain's brown argus butterfly, it took a species in trouble and made it thrive. more »
- How curry spice helps the immune system kill bacteria
- A spice used in curry dishes helps to prevent infection and now scientists think they've got a lead on how. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Government to shut down unique fresh water research area May. 25, 2012 12:31 PM The Experimental Lakes Area research facility in Northern Ontario is being closed down after 44 years of providing invaluable data to scientists in Canada and internationally, a decision that has stunned researchers and environmental groups.
Quirks & Quarks
- May 26: Before the Lights Go Out May. 24, 2012 10:14 AM A new book, "Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us", suggests that the unpredictable, unplanned, ad-hoc way our energy use developed in the past will shape our energy future.
Latest Features
- Victim's husband to be charged in Aylmer triple stabbing
- Reclaiming the dead on Mt. Everest
- Everest victim's family asks for government help
- Employment Insurance review boards to be scrapped
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Conservatives move again to have robocalls suits tossed
- Workers' EI history to affect claim under new rules
- Canada ending 'Buffalo shuffle' for visas, closing consulate
- SpaceX capsule docked at International Space Station
