SAN BRUNO, Calif. – Google’s YouTube announced last week that there will no longer be a subscription paywall in front of its scripted original content (there never has been, of course, for its user-generated stuff) and it will stream all of its offerings globally, with advertising.
Last week at its Brandcast event, the company which has been stung hard in the past by allowing ads to be placed beside some truly terrible content, which meant some brands abandoned the platform altogether said it is refocused on “helping brands reach their audiences” and it announced Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR) is now supported on YouTube. This will allow brands compare YouTube and TV reach apples-to-apples, says the company’s blog.
“To give advertisers more opportunities to validate their investments, we announced that Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) Sales Lift will be available for Google Preferred campaigns before the end of 2019. The tool helps brands measure the lift in offline sales for U.S. consumer packaged goods brands, and provide deeper performance insights across audiences, creative and more,” reads the statement from YouTube.
As well, YouTube originals like the Karate Kid inspired Cobra Kai, Will Smith's The Jump, or Liza Koshy’s Liza on Demand will now be ad supported and not require a subscription.
“Just after its season two premiere last week, which reached 20 million views in six days, Parrot Analytics confirmed Cobra Kai is the most in-demand digital original series in the world right now,” reads the blog.
YouTube Originals will be available to advertisers through bespoke sponsorships or Google Preferred lineups, it added.
Google Preferred’s proprietary algorithm, which generates what the company calls the P-Score, “looks at the popularity and viewer passion of specific content — things like the amount of repeat views and how often videos are shared to keep Google Preferred Lineups fresh. It also draws on protection, which places a greater emphasis on content suitability where Google Preferred Lineup ads will only serve on videos that are reviewed first by machine classifiers, then verified by humans,” says the company.
“Tonight, we shared that we’re adding two new ways to help the P-Score be even more useful to brands. There’s platform (for videos frequently watched on larger screens) and production (for content that has higher production values like advanced camera work or sound quality) to bring more high-quality inventory into Google Preferred.”
The blog also talked about YouTube TV (basically a cable package offered by the streamer), but that is only available in the U.S. That said, YouTube TV will be accessible as a standalone lineup in Google Preferred, too.
