The Internet comes to TV: YouTube is “definitely not” the first international TV channel, well, not in the traditional sense

YouTube’s head of AdSales Bruce Daisley refuted the suggestion that the video sharing site is set to be the first international television channel, as predicted by Adam Pace, OPera’s head of digital buying at MediaTel Group’s Future of Online seminar earlier this month.

Speaking at Wednesday’s ‘The Internet comes to TV’ event in London, Daisley said YouTube – which gets 1 billion worldwide streams per day – is “definitely not” trying to be the first international television channel, but was this a case of semantics?  Daisley added that he “wouldn’t describe [YouTube] as a TV channel in the traditional sense”.

Although, Daisley, who claims to be “massive believer in broadcast TV”, admitted that with young people it is potentially different, “because they start with the web”.

When asked whether YouTube will fully-integrate with television, Daisley simply said that the video sharing site will “get involved with anything that has web on it”.  So with web-enabled TVs becoming standard from this year onwards…

YouTube already features television content from broadcasters including Channel 4, and as Daisley says, “catch-up content is the hottest content”.  However, Daisley insists that YouTube is constantly looking to innovate and experiment when it comes to bringing TV to the internet.

At the moment, the site is focusing on securing rights to live programming, such as the Indian Premier League cricket matches.  “The most exciting element of TV is  still the thrill of a live event”, Daisley said.