TORONTO – The world’s most popular video-sharing site, the Google-owned YouTube, launched a Canadian site Tuesday, bringing to 15 the number of country-specific YouTube sites.
YouTube.ca will feature material from Canadian users though seekers of worldwide video craziness can still go to the international site, the company said.
What’s different, said Luis Garcia, YouTube’s international product manager, “is that this is just a Canadian lens into 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.”
The biggest beneficiaries of a Canadian YouTube may be the company’s partners. It’s signed up the CBC, CanWest-owned Dose.ca, the Canadian Football League, Sony BMG Canada and NewsCanada. They’ll be able to provide feature content.
“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, on the CBC’s website.
CBC has been showing content, including clips from The Rick Mercer Report and Royal Canadian Air Farce, as well as short films and archival footage, on YouTube.com since March.
The Canadian YouTube also opens more advertising options, such as allowing companies to run ads on just the Canadian site or any of the others, or paying to be associated with key Canadian words in the site’s search function.
