Back in January, YouTube announced that it was launching around 160 channels of fresh, original content to compete with traditional pay TV and network programming. Less than a year on, it’s axing over half of them.
YouTube injected $US200 million into the project, which includes channels like The Onion and Jay-Z’s Life and Times. Seems the rewards haven’t been as forthcoming as they’d like: 60 per cent are being axed, and YouTube will cream off 100 per cent of incoming revenue from the ones that aren’t renewed.
As for what will and won’t make the cut, All Things D reports that it’s not revenue that is the deciding factor, but watch time of the channels instead. [All Things D via The Verge]
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