60% of YouTube Channels May Lose Funding

YouTube channels are facing a reckoning: As it seeks to make the site more television-like, Google is launching a second round of investments in YouTube channels—but only 30% to 40% are likely to get a new installment of cash, an exec tells Advertising Age. At the moment, YouTube has 160 channels. But a year after beginning the funding process, the site now has a clearer sense of which ones are on the road to success. The new funding will be based on viewership hours, as opposed to number of views or how much cash a channel is generating, Fast Company notes.

"Our biggest objective was to kick-start the ecosystem, to bring in great creators, to deepen our relationships with advertisers and to grow viewership," says content exec Jamie Byrne, who's helming the process. If channels don't get funding, it's not the end: They can stick around, and YouTube bosses are hoping content makers will keep at it, AllThingsD reports. Channels that do get funding are looking at similar figures to those in the first round of investment: between $1 million and $5 million. It's a tough gig for the channel's producers, notes Ad Age: Before they start selling their own ads, they have to pay back YouTube's investment.