Category Archives: YouTube Creators – UK

The Official YouTube Partners and Creators Blog

U.K. General Election: Join the #PowerToDecide challenge

The U.K. General Election is being held on 8 June 2017. This is a great opportunity for young people, in particular, to have their voices heard and to shape the future of this country. We want them to take this opportunity to go out and vote!

So here is our question to our U.K. Creators: What are you doing to get the message out to vote? How about getting involved in the #PowerToDecide challenge!

Here’s how it works:

Not voting is the same as letting others decide for you what happens to the country.

We want you to get this point across to your fans by making a video where you leave an important decision in someone else’s hands. You can have a stranger choose your next video topic or some crazy outfit you wear for a day. Get creative!

End your video by talking about how giving up control like this made you feel. Encourage your fans not to give up their #PowerToDecide and to go out and vote on 8 June. You can also tag three other creators to take part in the challenge!

We’ll use highlights from these challenge videos to create a campaign video that millions of people across the U.K. will see. Want to have your video considered? Submit it to our agency partner at [email protected] by 9 a.m. 24 May!

Final note: To vote in the General Election on 8 June, make sure to register by 11:59 p.m. on 22 May!

An update on Restricted Mode

It’s been a few weeks since we posted about Restricted Mode so we wanted to give everyone an update on where things are. Restricted Mode is designed to be an optional feature that would help filter out more mature content from view, so that institutions like schools and libraries as well as people who prefer a more limited experience would feel comfortable offering access to YouTube. We want to clarify that Restricted Mode should not filter out content belonging to individuals or groups based on certain attributes like gender, gender identity, political viewpoints, race, religion or sexual orientation.

What we’re fixing
Back in March, we discovered our systems were not working as intended. After a thorough investigation, we’ve started making several improvements to Restricted Mode. On the engineering side, we fixed an issue that was incorrectly classifying videos for this feature, and now hundreds of thousands of additional videos of all types from entertainment to news -- including 300,000 featuring LGBTQ+ content -- are available in Restricted Mode.

We’re listening 
We’ve also spent time over the last few weeks talking with creators and third-party organizations to better understand their experiences and questions. One thing we heard loud and clear was people’s desire to report videos they believed were being inappropriately removed from Restricted Mode. Starting today, we’re providing a form to allow creators and viewers alike to give us feedback about this. We will use this input to help improve our automated system going forward.

More transparency about how Restricted Mode works 
We also heard that many people simply wanted to know what gets a video taken out of Restricted Mode. Here are some clearer guidelines creators should think about if they want their videos to appear in Restricted Mode:

Discussion and depiction of mature topics:

  • Drugs and alcohol: If you’re talking about drug use or abuse, or if you’re drinking alcohol in your videos, your videos will likely not be available in Restricted Mode. 
  • Sex: While educational, straightforward conversations about sexual education may be included in Restricted Mode, overly detailed conversations about sex or sexual activity will likely be removed. This is one of the more difficult topics to train our systems on, and context is key. If your music video features adult themes like sex [or drug use], that video will likely not make it into Restricted Mode. 
  • Violence: If your video includes graphic descriptions of violence, violent acts, natural disasters and tragedies, or even violence in the news, it will likely not appear in Restricted Mode. 
  • Mature subjects: Videos that cover specific details about events related to terrorism, war, crime, and political conflicts that resulted in death or serious injury life may not be available on Restricted Mode, even if no graphic imagery is shown. 
  • Profane and mature language: Inappropriate language including profanity like “F bombs” and “bulls#@t” will also likely result in your video not being available in Restricted Mode. 


Thanks to you, our community of fans and creators, we’ve made progress over the last few weeks. Though Restricted Mode will never be perfect, we hope to build on our progress so far to continue making our systems more accurate and the overall Restricted Mode experience better over time. 

Johanna Wright, VP of Product Management, YouTube

And next up is you! Enter for a chance to be a part of the YouTube NextUp class of 2016!

Whether you’re exploring what makes the world go round like ASAPScience, cooking up tasty treats like Laura Vitale or a lifestyle guru with advice to share like Ingrid Nilsen, YouTube NextUp has helped over 250 YouTube creators from 15 countries to turbocharge their YouTube channels since its launch in 2011.  

This year, YouTube NextUp is designed to reach more channels than ever! Up to 360 YouTube channels around the world will be selected as winners of NextUp contests to join the NextUp class of 2016. Today we are launching in the US and UK, but check back for additional contests in Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Paris, Toronto and Mumbai.  

So who’s next up? We’re looking for passionate, motivated and inspiring YouTube creators.1  Sharpen your production skills to tell more compelling stories and receive mentorship from production and channel development professionals, alongside other talented creators.  

If you are selected to join the UK NextUp class of 2016, you are eligible to receive: 

  • A £1750 voucher for production equipment to help you make your video dreams a reality. 
  • A spot at a week-long creator camp at YouTube Space London. You’ll team up with production experts to harness new techniques in camera, lighting, and sound, and receive coaching from YouTube Partnerships team on how to grow your audience. 
  • Mentorship by YouTube NextUp grads, plus the opportunity to meet and work with other fast-rising creators. Could there be a better way to set off some truly awesome collaborations? 

To enter the UK YouTube NextUp contest, see full details (including the eligibility requirements and contest rules) at youtube.com/nextup.


We’re excited to see what you’ll come up with next on YouTube!


Posted by Natalie Marchant, YouTube Sponsorships Program Manager, recently watched "Beyoncé & Bruno Mars Crash Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show | NFL."


________________________

1Eligibility requirements and NextUp Contest rules can be found at www.youtube.com/nextup

Found in Translation: Language tools for building a global audience

Do you ever feel like your videos are getting lost in translation? YouTube has over a billion users and is available in 76 different languages. So it’s easy to understand why it can sometimes feel that way. 

On average, over 60% of a channel’s views come from outside of its creator’s home country. That means two out of every three people who watch your channel might speak a different language than you. So how can you make sure viewers around the world can easily discover, understand and love your content? That’s where our latest set of translation features comes in. Designed to help creators make their content more accessible and understandable to an international audience, they include:

  • Community-contributed subtitles and CC - crowdsource your video subtitles and let your community help you reach more people in more languages. Opt-in by clicking here.
  • Translated titles and descriptions - add translated titles and descriptions to your videos.That way fans can discover your videos in their native languages. We’ll display your video information in the right language to the right viewers.
  • Translation marketplace (beta) - order professional translations of your content right from your Video Manager. Once you've chosen the target language(s) you prefer, simply checkout and pay. When the translation is complete, we'll auto-publish your content and send you a confirmation email.
Some of our partners have already tested out these features and the impact has been pretty remarkable. Take VICE. Their channel more than doubled the daily watchtime on translated videos from Spanish and Portuguese speakers. In fact, watchtime from Spanish users tripled. ¡Impresionante!

“These new features have the potential to fundamentally change the way VICE distributes its YouTube content on a global scale”, says Jordan DeBor, Video Partnerships Manager at VICE. “By removing the language barrier, YouTube delivers the opportunity to build new audiences in local markets and expand in our existing ones.” 

With the help of over 20,000 volunteer translators, TED, another important YouTube partner, has been experimenting with crowdsourced translations across thousands of videos in more than a hundred languages. They joined the new translation tools pilot just a few months ago and for the first time combined translated captions with translated titles and descriptions for two thousand videos in 11 languages. They saw major growth in localized watchtime – the channel’s localized watchtime increased from 20% to 35% overall, and in several cases up to 60%.

"For more than five years, we’ve been working to remove the barrier of language from TED’s mission in spreading ideas throughout the world”, says Kristin Windbigler, Director of TED’s Open Translation Project. “As one of our most important partners, YouTube has pushed the boundaries in making our videos not only accessible but also discoverable for viewers around the world.”

Ready to start using these features? Check out the translation tools overview page for more information!

Vladimir Vuskovic, Product Manager, recently watched Deb Roy: The birth of a word

Say hello to the redesigned YouTube mobile app

This story was originally posted on the official YouTube blog. We're excited to be launching a range of the mobile features you've been waiting for. Subscriptions are now front and centre in the app; there’s an easy way for your fans to opt in to all new upload notifications from your channel; and we’re offering simple editing and upload tools, integrated into the YouTube app.

If you’ve watched a YouTube video recently, chances are you did it on your phone or tablet. That’s because today, more than half the views on YouTube are recorded on mobile devices. So to bring you an even better mobile experience, we’re updating the official YouTube apps – making it easier than ever to find videos you love and to create them, too.

The update – available now on Android, mobile web, and soon on iOS – introduces three new tabs:

  • Home: easily explore and discover videos you'll love, with recommendations based on your watch history as well as playlists personalised just for you.
  • Subscriptions: find the latest videos from your favourite channels and creators on the new Subscriptions tab. And to help make sure you never miss an upload, you can now tap the bell icon on the channels you love, to get a notification as soon as a new video is posted.
  • Account: check out your playlists, watch history, and the videos you’ve uploaded, all in one place.









You can also now watch full-screen vertical videos with just a single tap for the very first time.

But YouTube isn’t just about enjoying videos – it’s also a place to express yourself and show the world what you love. With the redesigned app, you can take your creativity to new levels using a new set of video creation tools. You’ve got an amazing camera in your phone or tablet, and now you can trim your footage, tint the image with filters, add music, and upload… all inside the app.



These are just a few of the features we’ve been working on, and you’ll see many more later this year.

Matt Darby, Product Manager, and Omri Amarilio, Product Manager, recently watched "One of those days 2 - Candide Thovex."

60fps Live Streaming on YouTube in HTML5

We launched 60fps video playback on YouTube a few months ago, and from game walkthroughs to superbike racing, you’ve found all sorts of brilliant ways to make use of higher frame rates.

Now we want to help you take it even further with something new: 60fps live streaming, launching today as an early preview on HTML5-compatible browsers. When you start a live stream on YouTube at 60fps, we’ll transcode your stream into 720p60 and 1080p60, which means silky smooth playback for gaming and other fast-action videos. We’ll also make your stream available in 30fps on devices where high frame rate viewing is not yet available, while we work to expand support in the coming weeks.


We know high frame rates are especially important for gaming streams, so we’ve worked with Elgato and XSplit on new versions of Elgato Game Capture, XSplit Broadcaster and XSplit Gamecaster that support 60fps live streaming to YouTube, available for download starting today. In addition, any app using our live streaming API can add a new high frame rate flag to enable 60fps streaming.

But wait, there’s more! We’ve also added another long-requested feature for live streaming: HTML5 playback. As of this week, YouTube live streams will use an HTML5 player in supported browsers. And because our HTML5 player supports variable speed playback, you can skip backwards in a stream while it’s live and watch at 1.5x or 2x speed to catch back up.

These are the latest in a series of improvements that we’ve been making to live streaming on YouTube and there are plenty more to come, so stay tuned for more very soon. In the meantime, check out some live streams or create your own!

Alan Joyce, Product Manager, recently uploaded a 60fps playthrough of a terrible NES game.

Make your videos even more interactive with cards

As a creator, you’ve probably been using annotations to engage with your viewers for years. But one of the things that you’ve told us is that you need more flexibility with the info that you share through annotations, and—most importantly—you need it to work across screens and especially on mobile. That’s why today we’re introducing cards.

You can think of cards like an evolution of annotations. They can inform your viewers about other videos, merch, playlists, websites and more. They look as beautiful as your videos, are available any time during the video, and yes, they finally work on mobile.

Right now, you can choose from six types of cards: Merchandise, Fundraising, Video, Playlist, Associated Website and Fan Funding. You’ll find a new “Cards” tab in your Video Editor to create and edit them at any time.

                    19240256_blogimage_nap_en.png

Because cards work across mobile and desktop and give you more flexibility to share what you want, our goal is to have these eventually replace annotations. But this will happen only once they can do everything annotations can do today and more. Until then, we’re looking forward to your feedback on cards, including what you want them to do for you in the future.

Check out these Help Centre articles if you want to find out more.

Muli, Product Manager, recently watched “Karl Johan: Limbo time!”

A new way to see and share your world with 360-degree video

You share incredible videos with your fans every second of the day, but what if you could share even more in that video? Like, sharing the entire moment that you’re filming?

You could let viewers see the stage and the crowd of your concert, the sky and the ground as you wingsuit glide, or you could even have a choose-your-own-adventure video where people see a different story depending on where they look. Only you know what’s possible. That’s why today we are starting to support 360-degree video uploads on YouTube, to continue giving you all the best resources to connect with your viewers.



People can watch your videos on the existing YouTube app for Android, and by moving the phone or tablet around they’ll see all the different angles while the video plays. They can do the same on youtube.com or embedded videos on Chrome by using the mouse to drag the point of view around, and we’re working to bring this to iPhone, iPad and other devices soon. 

Creating and uploading 360-degree videos on YouTube

To make it easy for you to create and upload 360-degree videos to YouTube, we’ve been working with companies across the industry. Bublcam, Giroptic’s 360cam, IC Real Tech’s Allie, Kodak’s SP360 and RICOH THETA are 360-degree video cameras compatible with YouTube that are available today or are coming soon. You can find more technical information on the video format, along with a script you need to run on the video file to insert the correct metadata. We’re working to make this automatic, but in the meantime, this script will make sure your video uploads to YouTube as a 360-degree video. 

If you’re around the YouTube Space L.A., our Creator Tech team is also hosting a technology showcase from now through April, where you can try out these new cameras and learn new techniques from our staff.

Remember when the vantage point of the fisheye lens blew your mind? Now let’s see what you can do with every possible angle at your recording fingertips.  

Sanjeev Verma, product manager, recently watched “Tomorrowland 2015 | 360 degrees of Madness”.

Want your URL to match your channel?

When Tati joined YouTube, her username was GlamLifeGuru, which made her channel’s URL youtube.com/GlamLifeGuru. But as her channel grew, her fans embraced “Tati” as her brand. So her channel web address – which is often the quickest way for her fans to watch more of her content – didn’t match her channel name and branding.

To make sure that creators like Tati and all of you have a consistent place for new and existing fans to find you, we’re introducing an easier way to pick custom URLs that match your channel names and branding.

From this week, if you’re a creator with at least 500 subscribers, you may receive emails and in-product notifications if your updated custom URL is ready to claim. You’ll see several options waiting for you that are based on your channel’s description, Google identity and associated websites. If you want to select your URL, all you have to do is follow these instructions. Once selected, the new URL will automatically direct fans to your channel.



Not yet reached 500 subscribers? Try these tips to help your channel grow. And don’t worry – in the meantime your current URL will continue to connect people to your YouTube channel.

Laura Rapin, Product Specialist, recently watched Lemonade - Alex Boye

When musicians come together…

Incredible talent share their music on YouTube every single day. We want to help them do what they love most. This is why we work hard to make sure that musicians and music fans have the best experience on YouTube, and why we built YouTube Spaces in LA, London, Tokyo and New York.

But we want to do even more. We want to bring talented people from all over Europe even closer together to share their music, brainstorm and together make something unique.

So, we’re inviting musicians from across Europe* to the YouTube Space London for a two day musical get-together, to chat with industry experts on how to develop as musicians, drink lots of tea and possibly do a collaboration or two.

If music is your thing, you have more than 50,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel and you live in Europe*, apply now for a spot in this workshop.

Deadline to apply is November 28. The workshop will take place in the YouTube Space London on December 2nd and 3rd. Unfortunately space is limited so we cannot guarantee a place for all -- but we hope to see many of you there.

posted by Anna Gradil, YouTube Spaces team

*  Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom