NewTeeVee Misses the Mark with YouTube Spotlight
In a rare opportunity to bring exposure to made for the web shows apparently YouTube approached NewTeeVee and asked them to pick their top 10 made-for-the-web shows to feature in a spotlight section on the YouTube home page this weekend. Liz Shannon Miller takes up the task in the video: NewTeeVee's Web Series Picks for YouTube It's debatable whether these shows represent the best of what made for the web shows have to offer. It's unclear what it says that none of the ten videos selected are Streamy nominees. All the videos that were selected received an enormous bump in views.
This however can only be seen as a huge missed opportunity, of course not for the lucky 10 shows picked, but to literally(& figuratively) throw a spotlight to where other shows can be found. I don't think YouTube would have objected to directing the viewer to the Web Originals category of the Shows section. Or how about opening up the video responses so maybe a scifinal.com can submit their commercial or any other show could submit their trailer and get a little piece of the (at time of posting) 332,512 views. Most made for the web show's entire season run won't get 332,512 views and this would have been a way to share the traffic that the 10 selected videos enjoyed. This feature was well received so hopefully YouTube will take that as a sign that made for web shows should continue to be pushed.
Related: The Reality of A YouTube Front Page Feature (NewTeeVee)
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Definitely a missed opportunity. Not sure what Newteevee's agenda is. Perhaps this is just personal favorites or a list of shows they felt could use the exposure.
ReplyDeleteHowever it would seem that this great opportunity could have done a lot of good for the genre as a hole. Perhaps YouTube needs to find a better mechanism for discovering and giving exposure to all the great shows out there. Certainly the Newteevee list just scratched the surface and missed a LOT of shows that are worthy of attention.
This seemed more of an experiment in seeing how being featured on the front page of YouTube effects a show. It was done with meticulous attention to detail by providing data and explanation. And yes, in the end, it was up to Liz's discretion what shows were included. She shouldn't be faulted for that.
ReplyDeleteI would hope we could see the benefits of doing something in this vein and what it could mean in a positive way instead of being frustrated at which shows were chosen.
We all know the benefits of being featured on Youtube's front page. Those have been clear for many years. The question is how to take best advantage of such an opportunity. Clearly in this case Newteevee is free to take advantage of it to feature any shows they prefer. However there is a larger community out there and many shows which were not given exposure here. One would only hope that if Youtube is going to offer this type of opportunity that:
ReplyDelete1. They would offer it more often and to a greater variety of authorities on web series.
2. That the authorities take the responsibility they are given seriously and do what they can to promote the entire genre which as the article suggest could have been done by pointing out and linking the web series portal page.
People seen to want to make this about the shows that were chosen. The question I want to ask in the article is simply "could this opportunity have been used to help more than just 10 shows?" I think it could have.
ReplyDeleteThat was quite clear when you said:
ReplyDelete"I don't think YouTube would have objected to directing the viewer to the Web Originals category of the Shows section. "
That really would have been a very helpful thing to do and the long term impact could quite possibly have been much greater.
Continuing in the Devil's Advocate vein...
ReplyDeleteThe article implicated that the only benefit to the shows in a measurable way was the fact that the episodes that were linked by YouTube had a significant jump in views but that this didn't really translate across episodes of the shows featured. It would stand to reason that all that mentioning and/or linking to the Web Originals page would do is get that page itself a temporary spike in hits. How would that necessarily benefit any of the individual shows within the page?
The "originals page" is a "destination". True it is not the best designed portal but it still is the main destination for web series on Youtube. Raising the exposure for a "destination" does a lot more to raise awareness of all the web series that are available on Youtube than promoting any one series. The point being made here is that Newteevee had an opportunity to do both and they dropped the ball.
ReplyDeleteJenni- maybe I'm missing your point but wouldn't that be the same as asking "how does a hulu commercial help the shows on the site?"
ReplyDeleteNo, it's actually asking, "does one person's personal advocation of an entire site benefit all of new media?", which sounds like what you are arguing. But I could also be missing your point.
ReplyDeleteYouTube does not normally go around giving out this type of opportunity. It was a chance to really highlight what is going on in the genre and where to find more. That opportunity was lost by Newteevee. Perhaps someone will get it again but hopefully if they do they will execute it in a way that maximizes exposure for the genre.
ReplyDelete