YouTube once again looking to help fund original content

YouTube announced this evening in a blog post that, once again, it plans to start funding original content. Two years ago, YouTube announced plans to spend more than $100 million to get content creators to create YouTube channels on which to share videos. With that plan, they focused on bringing in outside entertainers. With this new push, however, YouTube says it will focus on helping the self-funded and self-published stars on the site grow.

YouTube says that it plans to pay its homegrown stars to create specific shows and it in turn will promote it to users everywhere. The company also says it wants to pair the entertainment talent on YouTube with Hollywood producers. In one instance, YouTube is looking to invest “single-digit millions” in a 10-part series, Re/code reports.

YouTube is obviously looking to invest in its talent right now as it faces competition from sites like Hulu, which are looking to produce more in-house, creative content.

Now, we feel the time is right to make another important investment in our creators. That’s why we’ve decided to fund new content from some of our top creators, helping them not only fulfill their creative ambitions but also deliver new material to their millions of fans on YouTube.

As any creator will tell you, making compelling new content isn’t easy, and we expect to learn a lot through this process. We’ll experiment with new formats and ideas. We’ll get our hands dirty. We’ll make some mistakes. Together, we’ll (hopefully) create some fantastic new content on YouTube. But one thing is certain: there’s no one we’d rather go on this adventure with than our creators.

You can read the full announcement from Alex Carloss, Head of YouTube Originals, on the YouTube blog.