BBC strikes deal with YouTube

The BBC reports that it has struck a content deal with YouTube - a consumer media company owned by Google that allows people to watch and share videos worldwide via the Web.

Three YouTube channels - one for news and two for entertainment - will showcase short clips of BBC content.

The BBC hopes that the deal will help it reach YouTube's monthly audience of more than 70 million users and drive extra traffic to its own website.

The corporation will also get a share of the advertising revenue generated by traffic to the new YouTube channels.

This is a clever and farsighted decision by the BBC. Online content is prevalent, popular, and youth-driven. By channelling this audience towards its own website, the BBC recognises that if it doesn't follow the changing trends in consumer profiles it will become a moribund media.

In the future these trends will impact upon writers, and their sources of revenue. It is incumbent upon writers to pay attention to these new sources of content, and learn how it to harness it in favour of their careers.