War? YouTube app disappears from iOS 6 beta 4 as Apple breaks Google ties

Mark Gurman

iOS 6 beta 4 has removed the YouTube application that existed on iOS since the first version in 2007. We’re not entirely sure what to make of this, but this could have to do with Apple trying to break away from dependence on Google services. iOS 6 drops Google Maps in favor of Apple’s own 3D Maps program. We’re looking into this. Of course, this just could be a bug or an error for this beta. YouTube is gone from the iPhone and iPad, but it is still present on the Apple TV (below).

Update: After we broke this major news, Apple confirmed to The Verge that YouTube is gone from iOS 6. Google is apparently building its own app.

Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.

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WSJ: Google spending another $200M on YouTube channels

Jordan Kahn

After announcing it would invest around $100 million in original TV quality content for YouTube last year, Google added almost a 100 new channels offering high-quality content. Today, we get some updates on the progress of the project from a report in The Wall Street Journal. According to WSJ’s sources, advertisers already committed over $150 million in ads on the channels for this year alone. Google also plans to throw another $200 million at the effort going forward. Google will also apparently fund content for international viewers:

YouTube plans to expand its channels initiative to Europe by funding a couple dozen video channels for British and French viewers by next year, according to people familiar with its initiative.

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Google shutting down Google Video, iGoogle, and three other services

Jordan Kahn

Google announced that it will shut down five services today, and two of the most noteworthy include Google Video and iGoogle.

Google Video has been on its way out for a while now having stopped accepting uploads in 2009, and most users hosting content on the service already received notifications to move their content to YouTube. The Google Video team has since worked on video search, and Google even outlined in a blog post today its plans for the service. Google Video will officially close “later this summer”:

Later this summer, all remaining hosted video on Google Video will be moved to YouTube. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re moving the remaining hosted content to YouTube as private videos. Google Video users can rest assured that you won’t be losing any of your content as it will be fully available on YouTube, and you can choose to make those videos public on YouTube if you’d like.

Google explained users will have the opportunity to manually migrate or delete their content by August 20:
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YouTube for Android updated to version 4.0, sporting revamped UI and remote function

Jake Smith

Along with a ton of other updates today, the crew in Mountain View pushed out their latest update: YouTube for Android version 4.0. Announced on the YouTube Blog this evening, the update includes a load of new features. Most notably, YouTube for Android has a new, sleek user-interface. There is a guide on the left side of the app that lists your favorite channels, including a “feed constantly updating with new videos,” called the “Channel Feed.” There you will find the latest videos from your subscriptions, so you will never miss a beat. Another big feature in today’s update is the ability to cache videos over Wi-Fi, which allows for smoother playback and less loading time for later. The feature can easily be turned on through the Settings menu by enabling “Preloading.” The YouTube team made it clear that you will still need a connection to playback the video. This is not offline by any means, but load time should be noticeably improved.

Another cool feature the YouTube app gained is a remote functionality that allows you to send videos and control playback on your TV. There is no information about which TVs are now supported, but Google told us to “stay tuned for updates.” Hopefully we get a clear list soon, but we would say most Google TVs are supported for now. Are you ready to check the update out yourself? You can now hit up the update button right from the Web. Check out the full release note after the break.

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Universal Music Group signs deal to pay indie publishers for YouTube, Vevo content

Jordan Kahn

After years of major record labels keeping the revenue from their ad-supported content on YouTube and VEVO, HollywoodReporter reported today that the National Music Publishers’ Association announced a deal with Universal Music Group (one of the owners of VEVO), which will see the label pay indie music publishers for the content:

The NMPA termed the agreement, which covers North America, a groundbreaking model licensing deal because it will allow songwriters and music publishers to share in revenue from music videos. Up until now, while Youtube and VEVO were making money on their ad-supported services, indie music publishers had not shared in that revenue because the major labels long considered videos as promotional tools and never paid for licensing the songs used in the videos. But as it became a growing revenue stream, indie publishers began to grumble that the major labels paid the major publishing companies but none of the independent music publishers.

The specifics of the deal have not been made public, but the report claimed that sources said publishers would get 15 percent of advertising revenues related to their content. It also claimed the deal would be “retroactive back to 2008″ with the amount for 2008 and 2009 set at 10 percent. The deal is said to cover not just music videos, but also “concert footage, backstage videos and artist interviews.”

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YouTube considering paid subscriptions as alternative to cable bundles

Jordan Kahn

Speaking at the Reuters Media and Technology Summit yesterday, YouTube chief Salar Kamangar talked about the video service’s desire to include subscription-based offerings that would possibly rival traditional cable channels. Reuters explained:

Cable channels with smaller audiences will in the future migrate to the Web and become available on an “a la carte” basis, Kamangar said at the Reuters Media and Technology Summit on Thursday… Some of those channels, which Kamangar said receive little or no affiliate fees from cable distributors, could be one of the viable offerings for Google-owned YouTube as it weighs selling subscriptions to some of the hundreds of millions of people who watch videos on the website every month.

The report also noted YouTube is thinking about charging a fee for access to some of its recently launched partner content channels:
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