BBC and YouTube strike deal, Top Gear comes to the masses
YouTube, our favorite website for sticking it to the man, is getting more legit by the day since it was purchased by Google. Word comes today that BBC has struck a deal with the popular video sharing service that will see clips of BBC shows, including Top Gear, legally featured on the site and available for consumption by YouTube's 70 million monthly users. The clips will be flanked by advertising, possibly including pre-roll adverts that are inserted before the meaty morsel of the clip begins to play. The deal is part of a larger strategy by BBC to provide content on YouTube in three distinct channels: the BBC channel that shows clips, trailers and shorst; BBC worldwide that's supported by ads and shows clips from Top Gear and other popular shows; and BBC News that will show about 30 news clips per day. The deal was struck in the hopes that by showing video on YouTube, the BBC will be able to drive traffic back to its own website where people can watch full length programs on the corporation's own video player called iPlayer.
We're jazzed that clips of Top Gear will now be readily available on YouTube since we frequently embed segments on Autoblog for your enjoyment, but for Top Gear aficianados the main distribution channel will likely remain Final Gear.
Thanks for the tip, Clinton!
[Source: BBC]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Big jim 1:48PM (3/02/2007)
not getting BBC where i live and Discovery not showing Top Gear in the US, good i can get my fix, i can live with it on You Tube
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Tim UF 1:52PM (3/02/2007)
And the chorus sang Hallalujah!
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akintz 2:04PM (3/02/2007)
I hope they keep those pre-roll things short... those are damned annoying.
Though if it means free content, I'm sure I could put up with a few seconds of advertisement.
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bmar10 2:13PM (3/02/2007)
at last i can watch the full top gear now instead of butchered clips
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CoffeeJones 3:29PM (3/02/2007)
If you searched long enough, you could re-assemble all nine seasons just from the clips on Youtube.
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Deezee 4:01PM (3/02/2007)
I dont want clips. I want the whole entire show. So back to torrents I go. But I do appreciate the effort. I'll probably still watch some.
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Doc Lucas 4:53PM (3/02/2007)
Agreed, bittorent is better. If you download the latest episode within, say, a week... it downloads really quick.
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Jeff Banks 7:21PM (3/02/2007)
Anybody tried the ABC full episode player? Not too many shows i'm interested in (except "The Knights of Prosperity...amazing show) but i'm hoping all networks will switch to something like that in the future. Especially Fox (I think they charge $2 a show or something like that). If the TV networks were smart, they'd just release torrent files with the advertising left in. No bandwidth to pay for, no website to make or anything.
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HotRodzNKustoms 10:48PM (3/02/2007)
The world is now one step closer to world peace.
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Eric L. 12:33AM (3/03/2007)
The discovery channel version was so watered down for the US market, if thats all you've seen, you are really missing out on the real Top Gear. So far this season has been excellent.
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loudboxer 1:06AM (3/03/2007)
This is the age of HD, the production of the show is too nice to whittle down to a teeny YouTube web-video. BBC ought to release whole Top Gear seasons as a DVD box-set... I've written BBC pleading with them to let me spend my money on something like that. Giant torrent files will have to do till then. Cheers.
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