YouTube Antes Up $100 Million for "Quality" Video

YouTube is looking for some sticky Web-video channels like Epic Rap Battles of History, and it's willing to pay.

Image: YouTube

Stupid pet tricks just won’t cut it, at least not all the time. YouTube wants videos that pop with viewers and advertisers—the kind of stuff Hollywood’s been doing for about 100 years.

So Google’s video division is pouring $100 million into paying the pros, or at least semi-pros, for content, the Associated Press reported Monday.

The company has launched an initiative to create 96 new channels featuring the work of such artistes as Justin Lin, the director of Fast Five, and Anthony Zuiker, creator of CSI.

Lin and YouTube announced in November that he was signing on to oversee the YOMYOMF channel. Here’s one of the videos created for the channel:

The $100 million isn’t huge bucks by Hollywood standards, of course, but it’s enough to attract some talent to a part of the Internet that has previously been proudly user-generated.

And creative types from Southern California aren’t the only ones who can get in on the act. Google is willing to ante up cash to some of the stars that have emerged on the platform.

The bottom line is the programming has to be of such high quality (or, at least, consistency) that fans subscribe to a videomaker’s work, virtually guaranteeing that it’s seen, rather than relying on the old viral-video method of producing YouTube hits.

The videos YouTube wants are the kind produced by Peter Shukoff and Lloyd Ahlquist on Epic Rap Battles of History, which draw millions of viewers.