Google Inc. on Friday announced the creation of around 100 online video "channels" on its YouTube website that will have new original programming involving celebrities such as such as singer Madonna, rapper Jay-Z, actor Ashton Kutcher and former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal.
The venture, in partnership with dozens of media companies, Hollywood production companies, and online-video creators, will generate about 25 hours of new, original programming a day on YouTube. The majority of the roughly 100 channels will launch next year.
Also involved in the venture are wellness guru Deepak Chopra, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, Rainn Wilson of "The Office," who will be featured in a comedy channel, and a Hispanic channel featuring Sofia Vergara of "Modern Family." The celebrities will partner with various production companies to produce the content.
Madonna is expected to be involved in a dance-related channel, and Jay-Z is expected to produce content related to his Life + Times website, said people familiar with the matter. Google is hoping to turn YouTube into a next-generation video provider that oversees free online channels with professional-grade shows. YouTube is expected to give some content creators 55% of the resulting ad revenue after YouTube recoups the cash advances it paid them, some of the people said. In Hollywood, such a split is considered to be generous.
YouTube is paying more than $100 million in advances to content partners, people familiar with the matter have said. "This depth of content is something the Internet industry has lusted after for years," and it could attract the attention of many brand advertisers, said David Cohen, an executive vice president at Universal McCann, a media-buying agency owned by Interpublic Group of Cos. "This is clearly the most audacious original programming initiative for the Internet, and it capitalizes on the trend of creating niche programming, thinking about people's passions and creating communities around them," he said.
The announcement about YouTube channels comes on the same day Google Inc. announced an upgrade to its Google TV software that aims to let people watch Web video—including the future YouTube content channels—on their TV screens. The first version of Google TV, sold as part of Sony Corp. Internet-connected TVs and devices made by Logitech International SA, was slow to take off with consumers.
YouTube hopes advertisers for the new "channels" content will pay rates approaching those they pay for sponsoring TV and cable shows, said the people familiar with the matter.
With the YouTube channels initiative, Google is trying to improve the quality of video content online and upend how entertainment is created. Some TV and cable executives have said privately they viewed Google's moves as a threat to their business. TV networks have blocked the programming that they offer online from being accessed through Google TV. Google executives have said the company isn't trying to replace TV or cable, but merely to complement it.
The channels will span 19 categories such as pop culture, sports, music and health, entertainment tailored to African-Americans and Hispanics, animal lovers, mothers, teens, and home-and-garden enthusiasts.
The channels will be launched in waves, starting this fall and ending sometime in the middle of next year, according to a YouTube business plan reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In addition to generating about 25 original hours of programming every day, an additional 20 or so "library TV" hours, or existing content that may have been previously broadcast on TV, would be uploaded to YouTube daily on the channels, the plan stated.
The video content must remain exclusive to YouTube for 18 months, said people familiar with the matter. The creators can take their content off YouTube after three years. The "popular" content category channels are expected to recoup the cash advances in two years.
Well-known personalities such as exercise guru Jillian Michaels; actors Suzanne Somers and Amy Poehler; model Brooke Burke; singer Pharrell Williams; and "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker also will be involved with some of the YouTube channels. Mr. Zuiker, for instance, will create a "suspense" series with numerous episodes, and Mr. Hawk will focus on content related to skateboarding and other "action" sports.
Some of the partners for news- and culture-related channels include Hearst Corp., Thomson Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp. One fashion channel on YouTube will involve magazines Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar.