MIPCOM ’12: The world according to YouTube

October 9, 2012 by Barry Walsh

Given the crush to cram into the Palais’ Grand Auditorium to see the standing-room only keynote presentation from YouTube global head of content Robert Kyncl, you’d be inclined to believe that it’s YouTube’s world, and we just watch it.

According to the impressive stats that opened the session, that just might be more of a reality than we know. According to the Google-owned video portal, 72 hours of video are uploaded every minute of every day. Granted, that’s a statistic that has prompted some to ask how much of that uploaded content is original UGC. But here’s another nugget to chew on – 800 million viewers watch a whopping 4 billion hours every month, which more or less equals seven Super Bowl audiences per month.

Thus, it’s no surprise that producers, content creators and content owners are chomping at the bit to figure out how to stake out some real estate in YouTube’s recently-expanded channel offering. And according to the company’s content head, that’s as it should be.

“Audiences are rapidly changing and if you want to keep up with them, you have to program on YouTube,” Kyncl stated.

With its initial offering of 100 channels making waves last year, Kyncl said it’s also grabbing eyeballs, with its top 25 channels racking up more than 1 million views a month. And importantly, ad revenues are increasing. According to Kyncl, the world’s biggest destination for online video content has now found an ad model that works – making the advertisements optional for the “viewser.”

“That’s a big deal,” he said. “When advertisers pay only when ads are watched, and viewers watch the ads they like, advertisers pay more.”

Kyncl then offered up another interesting nugget – one that he felt was important enough to repeat. Through this ad model, YouTube is making as much revenue per hour as ads on cable TV in the U.S.

Wrapping up his presentation with an invitation to assembled content creators and owners in the audience to “play with us,” Kyncl was then joined onstage by Group M Entertainment CEO Peter Tortorici, MK Capital partner Yair Landau and Shine Group CEO Alex Mahon for a general discussion of the future of content consumption and the evolving intersection between content creators, advertisers and content platforms.

Tags: Alex Mahon, Peter Tortorici, Robert Kyncl, Yair Landau, YouTube