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    Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

    (tedium.co)
    641 points shortformblog | 12 comments | 05 Feb 25 14:47 UTC | HN request time: 1.793s | source | bottom
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    lxgr ◴[05 Feb 25 15:40 UTC] No.42950057[source]▶
    Old movies have been available on various "free ad-supported streaming television" for a while now, so I'm actually more surprised it took copyright holders that long to realize that Youtube also shows ads and doesn't require people to install some wonky app that might or might not be available for their platform.

    Of course, region-specific copyright deals are incredibly complex etc. etc., so I could imagine it was just a matter of waiting out until the last person putting up a veto retired or moved on to other things.

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    1. robertlagrant ◴[05 Feb 25 16:28 UTC] No.42950872[source]▶
    It would be really nice if YouTube could give uploaders the ability to schedule ad slots, rather than them appearing randomly.

    Unless they do this already and stuff I watch just does it badly, of course.

    replies(6): >>42951435 #>>42951863 #>>42952005 #>>42952322 #>>42952614 #>>42957413 #
    2. meithecatte ◴[05 Feb 25 16:57 UTC] No.42951435[source]▶
    I'm pretty sure this is a feature that's available at least to big creators – I remember a Tom Scott video doing a bit involving scheduling an ad at a particularly fitting moment.

    You might have to be a YouTube partner or something like that to make use of this stuff, though.

    replies(1): >>42954953 #
    3. slongfield ◴[05 Feb 25 17:20 UTC] No.42951863[source]▶
    Yeah, YouTube's UI lets you set where the ads go. The creator tools let you set how many, and where midroll ads will play. However, most creators just click the "insert automatically" button.

    https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6175006

    replies(1): >>42952301 #
    4. ◴[05 Feb 25 17:28 UTC] No.42952005[source]▶
    5. mrandish ◴[05 Feb 25 17:48 UTC] No.42952301[source]▶
    > However, most creators just click the "insert automatically" button.

    That seems like a good opportunity for a neural net feature that's smarter than simple scene cut detection. While most theatrical films lack many good spots for commercial breaks, there are certainly a lot of "less bad" spots. Sadly, I doubt YT will bother since they no longer seem to care about viewer experience in recent years.

    replies(1): >>42952345 #
    6. not2b ◴[05 Feb 25 17:49 UTC] No.42952322[source]▶
    It appears that the intent of the ad scheduling is to be so annoying that it motivates people on the fence to pay for premium.
    replies(1): >>42953726 #
    7. not2b ◴[05 Feb 25 17:50 UTC] No.42952345{3}[source]▶
    YouTube doesn't even bother with scene cut detection; they'll insert ads mid-sentence. A lot.
    replies(1): >>42953007 #
    8. paulddraper ◴[05 Feb 25 18:06 UTC] No.42952614[source]▶
    They do.
    9. heywire ◴[05 Feb 25 18:32 UTC] No.42953007{4}[source]▶
    That’s one way to keep you watching, you’ve at least gotta hear the rest of the sentence! /s
    10. genewitch ◴[05 Feb 25 19:23 UTC] No.42953726[source]▶
    Would ABC make more if everyone switched to premium, or if everyone was ad-suppported? Be thorough, include ad sales people, telephone lines, lawyers, etc.
    11. jonas21 ◴[05 Feb 25 20:53 UTC] No.42954953[source]▶
    You need to be in the YouTube partner program, but that's not just available to big creators.

    You need at least 1000 subscribers and a certain amount of video watch time per year to qualify, but even fairly small channels can meet this bar. When people talk about getting monetized on YouTube, this is what they mean.

    12. rezonant ◴[06 Feb 25 00:29 UTC] No.42957413[source]▶
    This is absolutely already a feature of YouTube for creators.