The BBC has announced that it will produce tailor-made content for YouTube in a milestone for British television as the public service broadcaster teams up with the world’s biggest video platform.
The corporation has previously posted clips and trailers for BBC shows on YouTube but under the new deal it will make fresh programming for its online rival.
The content would span a mixture of entertainment, news and sport, starting with the Winter Olympics in February, the BBC said.
The broadcaster is fighting to adapt to a rapidly changing media landscape. YouTube, which is owned by Google, overtook the BBC last month in terms of audience share for the first time. Almost 52 million people watched YouTube on their televisions, smartphones or laptops in December, compared with 50.9 million who tuned into the BBC, according to the official ratings agency Barb.
The BBC’s outgoing director general, Tim Davie, said the partnership would help the corporation to “connect with audiences in new ways”.
“We’re building from a strong start and this takes us to the next level, with bold homegrown content in formats audiences want on YouTube and an unprecedented training programme to upskill the next generation of YouTube creators from across the UK,” he said.
The YouTube content will also be available on iPlayer and BBC Sounds. A small number of existing programmes will be available on YouTube, but the BBC said its strategy would not be to put all its content on the site.
It means, however, that people in the UK without a TV licence will be able to watch some BBC content on YouTube. The programmes on YouTube will feature adverts when viewed from outside the UK.
The deal, rumours of which emerged in the Financial Times last week, marks a vital step for the BBC as the government begins the process of renewing its charter and reviews how it is funded.
Most of the BBC’s funding comes from licence fee income, which amounted to £3.8bn in its latest financial year.
The corporation is contesting a $10bn defamation lawsuit from Donald Trump over a Panorama documentary that spliced together two parts of the US president’s address to a rally on 6 January 2021.
The broadcaster has already apologised and said the edit was misleading, but has denied that it defamed Trump. Davie announced his resignation in November over the row, prompting the broadcaster to begin the process of finding a new director general.
The BBC partnership with YouTube is the latest deal in the sector as traditional TV companies join forces with big tech. Netflix reached an agreement with the French commercial broadcaster TF1 last year to show linear TV on its streaming platform.
