YouTube Finds Its Footing with Traditional TV

The global video platform continues its aggressive push at the Mipcom TV market, arguing that it wants to be a partner, not a predator, of traditional television.

The video platform owned by Google, the world's largest TV distributor and, as of this year, the world's largest media company, wants the industry to love it, not fear it.

At Monday's Mipcom session in Cannes, YouTube VP Pedro Pina took to the home turf of the TV business, joined by Stefan Schmitter, CEO of leading German commercial broadcaster RTL Deutschland. Their message was that YouTube wants to work with traditional TV, not replace it.

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The meeting was part of a fascinating insult from YouTube, lifted from McTaggart Pina's speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival earlier this year, in which he pushed back on the idea that YouTube is behind the demise of old media. He reiterated this at Cannes, stressing that YouTube is a distributor, not a competing producer. "We don't invest in content creation as a platform," Pina said, adding that the company believes there are "incredible companies around the world that really understand what beautiful content looks like."

Noting that RTL had "no relationship or partnership with YouTube" just three years ago, Schmitter discussed the mutual benefits of legacy media companies working with the platform. The German broadcaster has started putting its shows on YouTube - attracting new audiences and bringing them back to its traditional TV and streaming offerings.

According to Schmitter, the network had great success removing about 200 older episodes of Cobra 11, a long-running German action series, on YouTube, which generated ad revenue on content that "didn't have much value in our ecosystem" and drove a younger, more male demographic to its subscription service, RTL+, which has newer episodes of Cobra. He said the company saw "123% more first-time video views on [RTL+]" and "about 26% more subscriptions" related to the content.

Pina argued that YouTube's revenue share model is proof that the platform's interests are aligned with its traditional TV partners. "If our partners aren't successful, we can't be successful," he said, noting that YouTube shares more than half of its ad revenue with partners. He noted that if the content isn't monetized, "we don't get anything out of it."

He also introduced YouTube as a safe haven for old TV.

"You can experiment until the cows come home. And if it doesn't work, shut it down, start over," Pina said. "If you do something on YouTube that's not successful, it's because no one watched it."

According to Schmitter, among RTL's experiments on YouTube was a program that "broadcast maybe five to 10 minutes of a football game exclusively on YouTube" and viewers had to go to RTL+ to watch the rest of the game.

The German broadcaster is also putting more of its news content on YouTube, following the lead of traditional networks such as the BBC. Both Schmitter and Pina argued that having more "authentic voices" in the news on the platform could strengthen democratic debate.

"YouTube is a big platform where all voices can be represented, all arguments can be presented, and what's important is making sure all voices are there," Pina said. "The more traditional players are on YouTube, the more parts of the voices are heard, and that's only good for democracy."

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