ESPN Comes to YouTube - And Brings Its Own Player and Pre-Roll Ads
Earlier this year, we heard that ESPN was supposed to come to YouTube this April, but AdAge now reports that the Connecticut-based sports network will finally arrive on Google's highly popular video portal on July 15. This would be an interesting development by itself, especially given that ESPN is owned by Disney, which just made a major investment in YouTube's competitor Hulu.com, but the really interesting part of this announcement is that ESPN will not only be the first network to offer pre-roll ads on YouTube, but that it will also integrate its own video player on the site.
ESPN already has its own YouTube channel, though the videos there are getting a dismally low number of views (generally under 500).
We are not quite sure how, exactly, ESPN will bring its own player to YouTube and whether this means that ESPN will continue to host its content and ads on its own servers. We asked YouTube about the details of this arrangement and will update this post once/if we get an answer.
Google has generally shied away from doing pre-roll ads on YouTube and argued that they did not perform well on the service, but given the current economic climate and the pressure on YouTube to actually make a profit at some point, it would seem that Disney and ESPN were able to convince YouTube to give pre-roll ads a try.
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youtube site itself to be persuaded that I think was good for him to join a large potential drops is very good
So far the videos don't have ads, but I think a brief ad at the beginning is fine. They also have to make money, we can't get them free forever.
This is great - unfortunately, I think the respective leagues (Especially baseball since Selig is a control freak) might want way too much control over highlights. As much as I love the homegrown aspect of so many VHS type videos, I hope ESPN invests a lot in offering a high quality repository of great moments in sports.
Josh
Sounds like the current traffic on the YouTube ESPN channel is low. It will be interesting to see if channel views increase now that ESPN is rev sharing it's ad deals with YouTube. YouTube, using media and other levers, can help ESPN drive the requisite views needed to fulfill the ad deals they're selling. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Their channel is truly a sad place.
way late for espn
Will people ever stop pushing version numbers on the web!
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This is great - unfortunately, I think the respective leagues (Especially baseball since Selig is a control freak) might want way too much control over highlights. As much as I love the homegrown aspect of so many VHS type videos, I hope ESPN invests a lot in offering a high quality repository of great moments in sports.