Youtube颠覆感官世界

    YouTube还在靠猫咪视频和病毒式营销打天下？那已经是老黄历了。过去两年里，YouTube经历了重大变革。谷歌（Google）拥有的这个网站已经成为专业化内容创作者们与观众交流的合法平台。Awesomeness TV、Maker Studios和Machinima这样的新型数字工作室正依靠YouTube茁壮成长起来，利用著名和新兴创作者们的视频内容积聚了大量观众，常常比那些热门的有线电视节目还要多，获得的收入和交易数以千万计。

    《财富》（Fortune）杂志封面故事《YouTube改变一切》（How YouTube changes everything）这样写到，YouTube不是打算毁掉电视，但显然它正开始颠覆主流娱乐行业。“如果说第一波视频娱乐时代是拥有少数频道的广播电视，而第二波潮流是拥有几百个频道的有线电视，那么现在网络正化身为拥有数万个迎合不同观众口味的频道。在这个新世界里，YouTube不仅是最大的分销平台，还是组织形式。可以把它想象成下一代康卡斯特（Comcast）、时代华纳有线电视公司（Time Warner Cable）和考克斯通信公司（Cox）的结合体，但它的模式略有不同：它是一个任何人都可以上传内容的开放平台，而YouTube攫取了接近一半的广告收入。”

    虽然谷歌从YouTube那里获得了数十亿美元营收，但很多内容创作者们渴望更好的商业化形式。正在度过黄金时期的电视仍然占据着统治地位，《权力的游戏》（Game of Thrones）等热门剧集和体育赛事直播节目斩获了更多的收入。部分问题在于，广告主仍然认为电视观众的价值超过了YouTube观众。但谷歌和其他公司正在努力改变这种观念。Awesomeness TV的布莱恩•鲁宾斯是娱乐行业资深人士，他认为终有一天观看就是观看，无关平台。如果这一点变成现实，YouTube和电视的世界将真正交汇在一起。（财富中文网）

    译者：千牛絮

    Cat videos and viral hits? No more. Over the past two years, YouTube has undergone a radical transformation. The Google-owned site has emerged as a legitimate platform for professional content creators to communicate with their viewers. A new breed of digital studios like Awesomeness TV, Maker Studios, and Machinima are thriving on YouTube, gathering massive audiences -- often bigger than those of popular cable shows -- with episodic content from established and up-and-coming creators. The money and deals are pouring in by the tens of millions.

    As the Fortune cover story, "How YouTube changes everything" says, YouTube (GOOG) is not about to kill off television, but it is definitely starting to disrupt mainstream entertainment. "If the first era of video entertainment was network television with a handful of channels and the second wave was cable with hundreds of channels, the web incarnation is about tens of thousands of channels tailored increasingly to niche audiences. In this new world, YouTube is not only the biggest distribution platform but also its organizing form. Think of it as a next-generation Comcast (CMSCA), Time Warner Cable (TWC), and Cox all rolled into one, but with a slightly different model: an open platform where anyone can put up content, and where YouTube grabs nearly half the ad revenue."

    Yet while Google itself is reaping billions in revenue from YouTube, many content creators are still hoping for better monetization. Television, which is going through its own golden age, with hit shows like Game of Thrones and live sports commanding ever larger checks, still rules. Part of the problem is that advertisers still value a TV viewer more than they do a YouTube viewer. But Google and others are working to change that. Awesomeness TV's Brain Robbins, an entertainment industry veteran, predicts that there will be a day when an eyeball is an eyeball, no matter the platform. When that happen, the world of YouTube and TV will truly collide.