The YouTube Original Channel Initiative was a $100 million program funded by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

to bring original content onto

. The original channel initiative was also meant to kick start Google TV. The channels are collectively known as "original", "premium" or "YouTube funded" channels. Participants include

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom h ...

Young Hollywood Young Hollywood is a privately held multimedia entertainment company founded in Los Angeles, California, by R. J. Williams. The company licenses the “Young Hollywood” trademark domestically and internationally for a range of consumer p ...

founder

R.J. Williams Robert Jackson Williams (born July 19, 1978) is an American media and Internet entrepreneur, and former child actor. He is the founder of the media company Young Hollywood. Early life and education RJ Williams was born in Los Angeles, Californ ...

, former NBA star

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), known commonly as "Shaq" ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program '' Inside the NBA''. O'Neal is regarded as one of the greate ...

, comedian

Amy Poehler Amy Poehler (; born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and director. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy tro ...

, actor

Ashton Kutcher Christopher Ashton Kutcher (; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a People's Choice Award, and nominations for two Young Artist Awards, a ...

, ''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original ser ...

'' star

Rainn Wilson Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', for which he earned three consecutive Em ...

, comedian

Kenny Hotz Kenneth Joel Hotz (born May 3, 1967) is a Canadian comedy writer, producer, entertainer and television personality. He is best known as the star of the reality comedy show '' Kenny vs. Spenny'' alongside Spencer Rice. Hotz is the creator of the ...

Motor Trend ''MotorTrend'' is an American automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, and designated the first Car of the Year, also in 1949. Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles published ''MotorTrend'' until 1998, when it was sold to ...

SourceFed SourceFed was a YouTube channel and news website created by Philip DeFranco in January 2012 as part of YouTube's original channel initiative, and was originally produced by James Haffner. The main SourceFed channel mainly focused on popular cu ...

, spiritual doctor

Deepak Chopra Deepak Chopra (; ; born October 22, 1946) is an Indian-American author and alternative medicine advocate. A prominent figure in the New Age movement, his books and videos have made him one of the best-known and wealthiest figures in alternativ ...

and ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. It follows the lives of th ...

'' actress

Sofia Vergara Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and has ...

. Most created channels through their production companies. Madonna is a partner with the dance channel DanceOn, while O'Neal plans the Comedy Shaq Network.

History

In September 2012, twenty of the 100 original channels started getting at least 1 million views a week. In October 2012, it was announced that YouTube introduced 60 new original channels. Google invested $200 million into the original programming as well. The top 25 original programs also averaged around 1 million views per week at the time of the announcement. In November 2012, YouTube ended funding for more than 60% of the 160 or so channels it financed as part of the initiative. After cancellation, YouTube kept all incoming revenue from these channels that failed to recoup their initial investments. In November 2013, it was reported that the landing page for the original channels had become a redirect to a 404 error page, seemingly as a way for Google to remove any reference to the original channel initiative.

Content

The content of the YouTube Original Channel Initiative includes

, The Mom's View,

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ...

Crash Course A crash course is an educational or research course conducted over a very short period of time. These rapid learning programs may also be described by the ambiguous term crash program. Crash Course may also refer to: Television and movies * ''Cr ...

BadTeeth Bad Teeth was a comedy YouTube channel created by Hat Trick Productions. Bad Teeth created content with traditional celebrities like Daniel Radcliffe, Idris Elba and Damian Lewis and also with people with large followings on YouTube like Cassett ...

i am OTHER I Am Other (stylized as i am OTHER) is a multi-media creative collective created by Pharrell Williams that serves as an umbrella for all of his endeavors, including Billionaire Boys Club and ICECREAM apparel, textile company Bionic Yarn and a ded ...

, The Pet Collective, Epic Level TV,

Geek & Sundry Geek & Sundry is a commercial YouTube and Twitch channel and multimedia production company. It was launched on April 2, 2012 by actress Felicia Day with Kim Evey and Sheri Bryant as part of YouTube's 100 million dollar original channel initiat ...

, MyMusic, Frederator Networks'

Cartoon Hangover Cartoon Hangover is a Frederator internet television channel and adult animation division, part of the YouTube Original Channel Initiative, launched in February 2012. Frederator produced two animated series exclusively for the Internet: '' Brave ...

and

The Multiverse The multiverse is a hypothetical group of multiple universes. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. T ...

among several others. One of

Tubefilter Tubefilter, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California that operates media businesses focusing on the online entertainment industry. Tubefilter is best known for Tubefilter News, a blog targeted at the fans, creators, pro ...

's articles includes a full list of the original channels, which differs from

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

's listing.

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, wi ...

started tracking the weekly video view stats for all the channels part of YouTube's Original Channel Initiative in May 2012.

References

{{YouTube navigation YouTube YouTube-funded channels