YouTube is opening its wallets again: The Google-owned video site has started to pass out another round of funding to some of its top content creators, according to a rather vague blog post by YouTube Originals head Alex Carloss, who wrote Thursday:
As any creator will tell you, making compelling new content isn’t easy, and we expect to learn a lot through this process. We’ll experiment with new formats and ideas. We’ll get our hands dirty. We’ll make some mistakes. Together, we’ll (hopefully) create some fantastic new content on YouTube.
Peter Kafka over at Re/code had a few more details, and reported that YouTube has offered one of its creators “single-digit millions” to fund a ten-part series.
YouTube’s latest round of spending comes after the company bankrolled the production of original content with a reported $100 million close to three years ago. Those early funding efforts led to mixed results: External media brands like Reuters largely failed to find an audience for their funded shows while channels from YouTube-savvy creators did well.
YouTube seems to have learned its lesson, and is now focusing on creators who are already successful on the platform.
