YouTube May Show Exclusive Original Programming Starting Next Week

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We’ve been hearing for some time now that YouTube’s had designs on original programming, and the new reports suggest that said reports may come to fruition in the next several days. But even if it takes a bit longer, this may well still be the start of a significant sea change as far as home theater goes.

The reports emerging suggest new original content from a variety of possible sources, as word is that InterActiveCorp’s Electus, Anthony Zuiker of “CSI” fame, News Corp., and skateboarder Tony Hawk have all signed deals with Google over the last several weeks regarding bringing content to YouTube. This is supplemented by earlier reports that said Google was looking to put up a set of “premium channels” bringing original content to YouTube every week.

And this is where the whole “sea change in home theater” part comes into play. See, YouTube has long been regarded as a central clearinghouse for cats, Jackass wannabes and various less savory video options. Don’t get me wrong here, there’s plenty of stuff on there that’s actually quite good and could use a bit more promotion on Google’s part.  But if Google starts bringing in its own heavy hitters for original content, that’s going to shake the site up. Moreover, we’ve already seen Google try to branch YouTube out into for-pay options with their various movie selections, so they already have a model in place should they decide to do the same thing with their original content. Conversely, they could also use their advertising clout to offer the content up for free and allow it to be advertiser supported, which in turn would likely bring more views to the site in general. There are a lot of potential options here, and it only remains to be seen just which Google will go with.

So what do you guys think about all this? Will Google use its advertising clout to offer us a better YouTube? Will we get more pay-to-watch options? Or will something entirely different happen. We’ve got a lot of questions and only time will provide the answers, but if you want to make some guesses, we welcome them down in the comments section!