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]