YouTube boost for Letterman
A month after CBS began putting shows legally on YouTube, figures reveal that the content is being viewed on average nearly 1 million times a day - and suggest the relationship is boosting TV ratings.
In total, since the partnership officially kicked-off on October 18, CBS has uploaded more than 300 clips to its branded YouTube channel, attracting a total of 29.2 million views - 857,000 per day.
CBS claims the YouTube relationship is helping ratings on its TV network, especially for late-night programmes, including David Letterman's chatshow.
According to a joint statement from YouTube and CBS, ratings for The Late Show with David Letterman have added 200,000 new viewers; and The Late Show with Craig Ferguson is up 100,000 viewers since the YouTube postings started.
"Although the success of these shows on YouTube is not the sole cause of the rise in television ratings, both companies believe that YouTube has brought a significant new audience of viewers to each broadcast," the statement said.
Three of the clips put on YouTube by CBS have made the video-sharing website's top 25 most viewed chart and more than 20,000 users have subscribed to receive content from the broadcaster.
"What's most exciting here is the extent to which CBS is learning about its audience as never before," said Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive.
"YouTube users are clearly being entertained by the CBS programming they're watching as evidenced by the sheer number of video views. Professional content seeds YouTube and allows an open dialogue between established media players and a new set of viewers.
"We believe this inflection point is the precursor to many exciting developments as we continue to build bridges rather than construct walls."
The upbeat mood of CBS is good news for YouTube as it potentially faces a swathe of lawsuits from major media owners over illegal material uploaded by users of its website.
It emerged last week that Google has set aside around $200m (£106m) as part of its takeover of YouTube to cover losses or possible legal costs resulting from copyright violations on the video-sharing website.
guardian