Tag Archives: YouTube

Introducing YouTube Music Sessions: Today’s music headliners with support from tomorrow’s

How many times have you been to a gig or festival and fallen in love with a new artist? I remember seeing Thandi Phoenix perform live right before she released her first EP last year -- it was soulful and captivating. Her song ‘Say It’ is full of energy and so catchy, it quickly became a favourite in our house. Seeing her on stage, and now being able to watch her career grow and more people discover her talent, is really special.
But 2020 has delivered the unexpected, with the entire music industry affected by COVID-19.
“The live music industry was probably one of the worst affected as a result of COVID-19. It’s been really horrible seeing all the tours and festivals cancelled and knowing that so many people have lost work for months on end.” -- Jessica Mauboy 
As music fans we feel the loss, as it has become harder for us to find our new favourite artists at gigs. But for emerging artists, cancelled support tours and festival appearances means they are missing out on essential exposure to new audiences as well as associations and endorsements from other more established artists, not to mention the financial impact too.
“Not being able to play live shows during these times has really impacted the ability for all artists to reach new audiences. As an emerging artist, live shows and support slots in particular are super integral in getting you in front of new audiences, new communities, cities and in developing a fanbase.” -- Emalia 
So we can all keep discovering new music and Australian artists can have a platform to connect with fans around the world, we are introducing YouTube Music Sessions, in partnership with ARIA -- a series of four exclusive online performances by leading Australian artists, supported by up and comers through virtual support slots this August.

“We know it’s not easy, at the best of times, being a new artist on the scene trying to get your music out there so I think it’s such an important thing right now for the community to come together and help each other out.” -- Jack Gray 
Premiering live every Wednesday this August at 7pm, one headliner and one support act will perform for audiences around the world.

August 5 
Lime Cordiale supported by Mia Rodriguez 
Fresh from their #1 ARIA Album release, Oli and Louis are pumped to be able to share Mia’s sound with their fans: “We’ve been following her progress for a while and her vibe is mad. She works with the same producer as us so every now and then we get a little sneak peek at some of her upcoming music and it’s always so exciting.”
August 12 
Jessica Mauboy supported by Emalia 
Emalia is honoured to share a virtual stage with Jessica Mauboy: “Supporting Jess is pretty surreal to me. I was a big fan of her growing up and she is such an icon of the Australian music scene. To be able to play the YouTube Music Sessions with her, at a time when I believe sharing music to spread love and healing is vital, feels really special.”
August 19 
Paul Kelly supported by Eliott 
Eliott is trying to contain her excitement in singing alongside Paul Kelly: “Paul Kelly is such an incredible songwriter and performer, so authentic and raw. Which is something I always strive to be in my own music.”
August 26 
Vera Blue supported by Jack Gray 
Vera Blue can’t wait to see Jack’s career take off: “Jack Gray is an incredibly cool up and coming artist! I love his style and his voice is so unique. His songs have a semi electronic rock style with emotion and which reminds of surfy skate rock culture.”
Each performance will stream on the headliner’s YouTube channel and will be playlisted on the YouTube Australia and New Zealand channel and the ARIA channel.
We couldn’t celebrate the music industry like this without the support of ARIA and are thrilled the team are partnering with us.
Dan Rosen, ARIA Chief Executive, said, “ARIA is thrilled to continue our partnership with YouTube and provide another platform for music fans around the world to engage with Australian artists. During these challenging times we have seen Australian audiences move to watch even more online performances, and our artists have done an amazing job in helping us stay connected in this difficult period. I can’t wait to hear some incredible new music from some of our established greats and to discover new music from emerging artists on these YouTube Music Sessions.”
YouTube Music Sessions is also proud to help Support Act, Australia’s only charity delivering crisis relief services to artists, crew and music workers. For anyone tuning in to the performances and that can, please click the link in the description to make a donation to Support Act and show your love for our Aussie music industry. YouTube will be kicking the effort off with a $50,000 donation.
Clive Miller, Support Act CEO, said, “The pandemic has created intense financial hardship for artists, crew and music workers. It has also created significant anxiety, depression, career concerns and other mental health related issues, resulting in a 60% increase in utilisation of the Support Act Wellbeing Helpline.
“We’ll be using donations from YouTube Music Sessions to support our 24/7 professional counselling helpline as well as COVID-19 crisis relief grants -- which provide financial support in the areas of rent/mortgage, food, utilities, medical equipment and other expenses.”
“It’s really great that the organisation Support Act is involved so that we can support not only our artists during this tough time, but the crew and teams involved in making shows and festivals come together are being supported too.” -- Vera Blue 
We can’t wait to watch these performances and hope you’ll join us at 7pm each Wednesday night in August. Paul Kelly summed it up perfectly -- this is the time for the entire music industry to support each other.
“Emerging artists and established artists support each other. It isn’t a one-way street. I like to put a bill together with other artists so that we complement each other. It’s a kind of curation. A synergy. I love introducing young artists I like to my audience. I want that audience to walk away with the sense that they’ve just witnessed something that will never happen again.” -- Paul Kelly 

Posted by Mark Wheeler, Head of YouTube Marketing Australia -- who’s been listening to Tones And I’s The Kids Are Coming EP on repeat with his family over the last few weeks.

‘After School’ with YouTube Kids

Parents and caretakers,
We know this isn’t the easiest time for you. You’re juggling work, life, kids and the state of the world today. The struggle is real for you and all families around the world. I’m there as well, with two young sons of my own at home, asking me for some extra screen-time, even as I type this. It is increasingly difficult as a parent to choose the right content and how much of it is for our kids. That’s why we want to help you with a library of high quality full-length movies and specials that will enrich as well as entertain your children, and that you can enjoy along with them.
YouTube Kids is a platform of choice for many of you, and with the extended time being spent at home it has become even more helpful for families. While some schools are back to physical in-class instruction, others remain virtual. We want to help you keep your kids engaged, enriched and entertained ‘After School’ because as a parent I can understand how difficult a task that can often be. Therefore starting today, until August 31st, we will release over 100 movies and specials on YouTube Kids, ensuring that your kids have a memorable ‘After School’ experience.
Over 100 Movies & Specials now on YouTube Kids
From popular family movies and specials featuring Tayo the Little Bus, Baby Shark and Pinkfong, The Wiggles, Masha And The Bear, Oggy & the Cockroaches and Paddington, to a collection of the best animated short films anchored by Oscar-winning short film Hair Love, and a wide variety of educational specials including Sesame Street’s Elmo’s World News, produced in collaboration with the Lego Foundation, and selections from BBC Studios’ hit series, Hey Duggee. Every Monday starting today, for the next five weeks, we will surface these excellent movies and specials in the app's “Shows” category, as individual videos, as well as playlists.
As part of this initiative, we will premiere Spookiz, a new movie produced by Wildbrain in collaboration with South Korean studio Keyring Studios, exclusively on YouTube Kids. Moreover, we will also offer special YouTube Original content, including Disney's complete series Shook and two Simon's Cat specials courtesy of Endemol Shine, for kids ages six and up.
We also have a wide variety of YouTube Originals available on YouTube Originals for Kids & Family Channel and YouTube Kids, including SHERWOOD for kids age eight and older, Kings of Atlantis and Fruit Ninja Frenzy Force for ages five and up, and current favourite for many kids and tweens across the world -- Lockdown, suitable for ages five and up.
Oscar-winning short film Hair Love on YouTube Kids
That’s not all, you could create a movie watching experience for your kids at home by making their favourite flavoured popcorn, movie night kits, setting ambient lighting, tweaking those sound settings, and don't forget to introduce them to the movie characters ahead of the movie. One interesting activity I love doing with my kids is to get them to produce their own movie review or create their own story based on the movie we just watched together. It's a great way to help them learn and improve their writing and communication skills. Check out this great video in YouTube Kids to teach your children how to craft their own stories today.
In addition, we are continuing to feature evergreen monthly themes on YouTube Kids, including our Month of Reading with a focus on diversity and inclusion, and read-alongs featuring Oprah Winfrey, Oscar Award winning actor Rami Malek and James Bond actress Michelle Yeoh from StorylineOnline. Moreover, just last month we announced Camp YouTube: a digital learning experience to help parents recreate the fun of summer camp at home. Camp YouTube spotlights content on the [email protected] site and YouTube Kids across beloved summer camp themes, such as arts, adventure, sports, STEM, and more. With over 1,200 videos programmed, we want to take kids on a virtual journey of learning and exploration. Families can discover how to make a tide pool aquarium in their backyard with Brave Wilderness, make art with household items while learning art history with the ArtistYear, or learn coding with Goldieblox.
YouTube Kids app was built keeping in mind kids below the age of 13 years. It's a family-friendly place for kids to explore their imagination and curiosity. The app empowers parents to control what YouTube content their child can see, including the option to only allow content from trusted partners like Sesame Street, ChuChu TV, Bounce Patrol and PBS Kids, or hand pick other videos and channels to create a curated playlist for their kids.
We know this time of the year may be a bit different for a lot of us. However, with the help of our partners and creators, we hope you and your families can experience a great time right from your homes.

Posted by Don Anderson, Head of Family & Learning Partnerships, YouTube APAC

17,572 singers, in perfect harmony (from their own homes)

When you think of a choir, you likely put a descriptor before it: a school choir, a church choir, a community choir. Singing in a chorus usually means you’re standing within a large group of people, belting out songs and nailing those harmonies together. But what happens when you can’t gather in person to sing? 


That’s where virtual choirs come in. Composer and conductor Eric Whitacre has been putting them together for more than a decade, long before the pandemic left us stuck at home—and his most recent collaboration, which debuted on YouTube July 19, is his biggest project yet. 


Whitacre started organizing Virtual Choirs in 2009, when a fan uploaded a video of herself singing one of his choral compositions. He saw the video, then asked others to record themselves singing the other parts of the same composition to form a “choir.” That first group featured 185 singers, and each one since has grown larger and larger, to more than 8,000 voices for the fifth performance in 2018.

Eric Whitacre Credit Marc Royce.jpg

Eric Whitacre (Photo by Marc Royce)

This year, signups for Virtual Choir have skyrocketed. More than 17,000 singers from around the world found a way to participate in the sixth recording from the isolation of their own homes. They all learned “Sing Gently,” a song Whitacre composed during the pandemic. “Even early on, you’d be walking down the street in masks and you’d go out of your way to not pass someone,” Whitacre says. “A random stranger would become a threat. That was hard to see, and I was feeling that all over.” So the lyrics to “Sing Gently” encourage people to “live with compassion and empathy, and do this together,” he says. 


The Virtual Choir team uses every video submitted, unless there’s a technical problem with the recording. That means there are thousands of videos to sync together, and thousands of sound recordings to edit so the result sounds seamless. This time around, the team featured three sound editors, six people reviewing each submission and two executive producers; the team was scattered through the U.S., the U.K. and South Africa. Across three different continents, they used Google Docs and Google Sheets to keep track of their progress, Google’s webmaster tools to manage thousands of email addresses and Google Translate to keep in touch with singers around the world. Singers checked the choir’s YouTube channels for rehearsal videos, footage of Whitacre conducting the song and Q&As with other singers and composers.

Sing Gently.jpeg

The video for "Sing Gently" features the song's lyrics and footage of the singers, who recorded from their homes.

It was also significant that these singers came together (figuratively speaking) at a time when musicians are suddenly out of work. “It’s an especially surreal moment for singers, because we’ve been labeled as superspreaders,” Whitacre laments, referring to a term for people who spread the disease more than others; in one instance, dozens of singers in Washington state were infected after a choir practice.  “Even just the act of singing is dangerous for other people.” He says he was struck by the number of participants who told him it felt good to sing with others again—even though they weren’t actually performing in the same room. 


Molly Jenkins, a choir lover based in North Carolina, was one of the 6,262 sopranos who took part in “Sing Gently.” She had always wanted to join a virtual choir, but never found the perfect time to give it a try. But since there’s no such thing as a perfect moment in a pandemic, she decided to figure out a way to make it work. 

This, I think, is the best of the promise of the Internet. Eric Whitacre
composer and conductor

With her phone in hand to hear the guide tracks, Molly practiced whenever and wherever she could: in the shower, at the kitchen table while working from home, in her front yard and while burping her baby. When it came time to record her track, there was one problem: finding a quiet place to record. “There was no space to record where a shrieking, gurgling baby wouldn’t interrupt the take,” she says. 

She ended up in her car on a rainy day, playing the conductor track on her laptop and recording her vocals on her phone. Sound engineers were able to isolate her vocal track from the background noise of the rain tapping on her windshield. “I’m just so glad I went for it,” Molly says.

Whitacre says that improvisational spirit is key to creating his choirs, and he’s grateful that technology can enable great collaborations despite social distancing. “It really speaks to the best of technology,” he says. “This, I think, is the best of the promise of the Internet.”

You’re invited to participate in “Life In A Day 2020” on July 25

On July 25, executive producers Ridley Scott (“The Martian,” “Gladiator”) and Kai Hsuing (“Lords of Chaos”), along with director Kevin Macdonald (“Whitney,” “One Day in September,” “The Last King of Scotland”), invite you and the YouTube global community to pick up your cameras to create “Life In A Day 2020.”

Exactly 10 years after the original “Life In A Day,” the world will once again come together to create a YouTube Original feature-length documentary that tells the story of a single day on Earth. Selected footage sourced from participants like you will be woven together in this documentary to tell the story of an ordinary day during these extraordinary times. “Life In A Day 2020” will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and on YouTube in 2021.

How the project works


On a single day, Saturday, July 25, people around the world are invited to film their day.

Maybe you'll be filming from home as you continue to navigate the coronavirus pandemic, or maybe you're in a part of the world where you're figuring out how to move forward in a transformed world. Maybe you're connecting with friends, reuniting with family, or going to work. Maybe it's a special day - you’re getting married, moving out, sharing important news. Or maybe it’s just a normal day. We want to weave together these unique experiences and perspectives to create a time capsule of this moment.

The final feature film will be edited over the course of five months, crafted entirely through what is found in the submitted footage. Once the submission window closes, a 30-person team of multilingual reviewers stationed around the world will begin reviewing and translating submitted videos. Three principal feature editors - Nse Asuquo (House of My Fathers, The Jazz Ambassadors), Mdhamiri Á Nkemi (The Pale Horse, Blue Story), and Sam Rice-Edwards (Whitney) - will then undertake an enormous post-production effort, working alongside director Kevin Macdonald, to shape the film's final narrative out of the submitted footage. br />

Who can take part


The filmmakers are encouraging people from all over the world to take part, and they hope to capture a wide perspective on life. Submissions are open from July 25 to August 2, which means you will only have one week to submit your footage at lifeinaday.youtube.

While only a small number of the submitted clips will make it into the movie, YouTube and the filmmakers hope the filming day itself becomes a significant day of global participation. The “Life In A Day 2020” project celebrates the importance of everyone coming together in a moment of equal, worldwide collaboration.

About the original film


In 2010, “Life In A Day” brought the YouTube community together for a massive participatory feature film project that attracted 80,00 submissions. The final film premiered at Sundance in 2011, was released globally in theatres, and has been watched on YouTube over 16 million times.

Source: YouTube Blog


SmartReply for YouTube Creators

Posted by Rami Al-Rfou, Research Scientist, Google Research

It has been more than 4 years since SmartReply was launched, and since then, it has expanded to more users with the Gmail launch and Android Messages and to more devices with Android Wear. Developers now use SmartReply to respond to reviews within the Play Developer Console and can set up their own versions using APIs offered within MLKit and TFLite. With each launch there has been a unique challenge in modeling and serving that required customizing SmartReply for the task requirements.

We are now excited to share an updated SmartReply built for YouTube and implemented in YouTube Studio that helps creators engage more easily with their viewers. This model learns comment and reply representation through a computationally efficient dilated self-attention network, and represents the first cross-lingual and character byte-based SmartReply model. SmartReply for YouTube is currently available for English and Spanish creators, and this approach simplifies the process of extending the SmartReply feature to many more languages in the future.
YouTube creators receive a large volume of responses to their videos. Moreover, the community of creators and viewers on YouTube is diverse, as reflected by the creativity of their comments, discussions and videos. In comparison to emails, which tend to be long and dominated by formal language, YouTube comments reveal complex patterns of language switching, abbreviated words, slang, inconsistent usage of punctuation, and heavy utilization of emoji. Following is a sample of comments that illustrate this challenge:
Deep Retrieval
The initial release of SmartReply for Inbox encoded input emails word-by-word with a recurrent neural network, and then decoded potential replies with yet another word-level recurrent neural network. Despite the expressivity of this approach, it was computationally expensive. Instead, we found that one can achieve the same ends by designing a system that searches through a predefined list of suggestions for the most appropriate response.

This retrieval system encoded the message and its suggestion independently. First, the text was preprocessed to extract words and short phrases. This preprocessing included, but was not limited to, language identification, tokenization, and normalization. Two neural networks then simultaneously and independently encoded the message and the suggestion. This factorization allowed one to pre-compute the suggestion encodings and then search through the set of suggestions using an efficient maximum inner product search data structure. This deep retrieval approach enabled us to expand SmartReply to Gmail and since then, it has been the foundation for several SmartReply systems including the current YouTube system.

Beyond Words
The previous SmartReply systems described above relied on word level preprocessing that is well tuned for a limited number of languages and narrow genres of writing. Such systems face significant challenges in the YouTube case, where a typical comment might include heterogeneous content, like emoji, ASCII art, language switching, etc. In light of this, and taking inspiration from our recent work on byte and character language modeling, we decided to encode the text without any preprocessing. This approach is supported by research demonstrating that a deep Transformer network is able to model words and phrases from the ground up just by feeding it text as a sequence of characters or bytes, with comparable quality to word-based models.

Although initial results were promising, especially for processing comments with emoji or typos, the inference speed was too slow for production due to the fact that character sequences are longer than word equivalents and the computational complexity of self-attention layers grows quadratically as a function of sequence length. We found that shrinking the sequence length by applying temporal reduction layers at each layer of the network, similar to the dilation technique applied in WaveNet, provides a good trade-off between computation and quality.

The figure below presents a dual encoder network that encodes both the comment and the reply to maximize the mutual information between their latent representations by training the network with a contrastive objective. The encoding starts with feeding the transformer a sequence of bytes after they have been embedded. The input for each subsequent layer will be reduced by dropping a percentage of characters at equal offsets. After applying several transformer layers the sequence length is greatly truncated, significantly reducing the computational complexity. This sequence compression scheme could be substituted by other operators such as average pooling, though we did not notice any gains from more sophisticated methods, and therefore, opted to use dilation for simplicity.
A dual encoder network that maximizes the mutual information between the comments and their replies through a contrastive objective. Each encoder is fed a sequence of bytes and is implemented as a computationally efficient dilated transformer network.
A Model to Learn Them All
Instead of training a separate model for each language, we opted to train a single cross-lingual model for all supported languages. This allows the support of mixed-language usage in the comments, and enables the model to utilize the learning of common elements in one language for understanding another, such as emoji and numbers. Moreover, having a single model simplifies the logistics of maintenance and updates. While the model has been rolled out to English and Spanish, the flexibility inherent in this approach will enable it to be expanded to other languages in the future.

Inspecting the encodings of a multilingual set of suggestions produced by the model reveals that the model clusters appropriate replies, regardless of the language to which they belong. This cross-lingual capability emerged without exposing the model during training to any parallel corpus. We demonstrate in the figure below for three languages how the replies are clustered by their meaning when the model is probed with an input comment. For example, the English comment “This is a great video,” is surrounded by appropriate replies, such as “Thanks!” Moreover, inspection of the nearest replies in other languages reveal them also to be appropriate and similar in meaning to the English reply. The 2D projection also shows several other cross-lingual clusters that consist of replies of similar meaning. This clustering demonstrates how the model can support a rich cross-lingual user experience in the supported languages.
A 2D projection of the model encodings when presented with a hypothetical comment and a small list of potential replies. The neighborhood surrounding English comments (black color) consists of appropriate replies in English and their counterparts in Spanish and Arabic. Note that the network learned to align English replies with their translations without access to any parallel corpus.
When to Suggest?
Our goal is to help creators, so we have to make sure that SmartReply only makes suggestions when it is very likely to be useful. Ideally, suggestions would only be displayed when it is likely that the creator would reply to the comment and when the model has a high chance of providing a sensible and specific response. To accomplish this, we trained auxiliary models to identify which comments should trigger the SmartReply feature.

Conclusion
We’ve launched YouTube SmartReply, starting with English and Spanish comments, the first cross-lingual and character byte-based SmartReply. YouTube is a global product with a diverse user base that generates heterogeneous content. Consequently, it is important that we continuously improve comments for this global audience, and SmartReply represents a strong step in this direction.

Acknowledgements
SmartReply for YouTube creators was developed by Golnaz Farhadi, Ezequiel Baril, Cheng Lee, Claire Yuan, Coty Morrison‎, Joe Simunic‎, Rachel Bransom‎, Rajvi Mehta, Jorge Gonzalez‎, Mark Williams, Uma Roy and many more. We are grateful for the leadership support from Nikhil Dandekar, Eileen Long, Siobhan Quinn, Yun-hsuan Sung, Rachel Bernstein, and Ray Kurzweil.

Source: Google AI Blog


To our YouTube TV members: an update to our content and price

In 2017, we introduced YouTube TV, live TV designed for the YouTube generation — those who want to stream TV when and how they want, without commitments. We’ve just passed the three-year mark, so I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on how we’re thinking about YouTube TV.

Since launch, we’ve listened to your feedback and worked to build an experience that fits the needs of everyone in your family, by adding highly-requested content like PBS and Discovery Network brands, including HGTV and Food Network, and launching new features to reinvent how you watch live TV.

As we continue to build a best-in-class experience for you, we have a few updates to share: new content launching today, new features we’ve recently introduced, and an updated price.

More content to enjoy, starting today


Earlier this year, we let you know that we’d soon be adding more of ViacomCBS’s family of brands to YouTube TV, which includes 8 of your favorite channels launching today: BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TV Land and VH1.

That means you can follow the biggest stories in news, politics and pop culture with “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah;” catch up with Catelynn, Cheyenne, Maci, Mackenzie and Amber on “Teen Mom OG;” join the search for America’s next drag superstar with “RuPaul’s Drag Race;” go on an adventure with “SpongeBob SquarePants;” and follow the fictional lives of the Dutton family on the new season of “Yellowstone,” airing now.

BET Her, MTV2, MTV Classic, Nick Jr., NickToons, and TeenNick are also set to come to YouTube TV at a later date.

In addition to our base plan of now more than 85+ channels, we also recently introduced Cinemax and HBO Max, which includes all of HBO plus a robust library of content and original series, to our growing list of add-on channels, making YouTube TV your one-stop shop for entertainment.

The latest features to try while you sit back with your favorite shows


We’re always listening to our member’s feedback on the channels they want to see on YouTube TV, but we’re also continuously building new features and making improvements that reinvent how you watch TV and interact with your favorite content on YouTube TV. Here are just a few of those features and updates we’ve launched recently:


  • Jump to the news that matters most to you: We’ve been testing a new feature that allows you to jump to various segments within select news programs on YouTube TV, and have just brought this to all users. Similar to our key plays view for sports, on some programs you’ll be able to jump to specific news clips within the complete recording. This feature is available on TV screens now and will come to mobile devices in the coming weeks.
  • Control over your recorded content: In addition to your unlimited DVR space, YouTube TV members can pause, rewind, and fast forward through all their recorded shows, regardless of network.
  • Go easy on the eyes with Dark Mode: We recently introduced a dark theme to both desktop and mobile devices to help tone down your screen’s glare and experience YouTube TV with a dark background.
  • Mark a show as watched: You now have an option to select “Mark as Watched” on desktop and mobile devices for any TV show you’ve already seen, a top requested feature from our members.
  • A fresh new look for the Live Guide: Based on your feedback, we’ve updated the Live Guide on desktop so you can see what’s on, now, and also scroll ahead 7 days into the future.


An update to your price


As we continue to evaluate how to provide the best possible service and content for you, our membership price will be $64.99. This new price takes effect today, June 30, for new members. Existing subscribers will see these changes reflected in their subsequent billing cycle on or after July 30.

We don’t take these decisions lightly, and realize how hard this is for our members. That said, this new price reflects the rising cost of content and we also believe it reflects the complete value of YouTube TV, from our breadth of content to the features that are changing how we watch live TV. YouTube TV is the only streaming service that includes a DVR with unlimited storage space, plus 6 accounts per household each with its own unique recommendations, and 3 concurrent streams. It's all included in the base cost of YouTube TV, with no contract and no hidden fees.

While we would love every member to continue to stay with our service, we understand that some of you may choose to pause or cancel your membership. We want to make YouTube TV flexible for you, so members can pause or cancel anytime here.

As the streaming industry continues to evolve, we are working to build new flexible models for YouTube TV users, so we can continue to provide a robust and innovative experience for everyone in your household without the commitments of traditional TV.

Thank you for being a part of the YouTube TV family. We’ll continue to work to make it the best place to watch live TV, how you want it.

Christian Oestlien, Vice President of Product Management, YouTube TV

Source: YouTube Blog


Camp Google is now open



Dear parents,
The summer months have always reminded me of balmy days, of kids running around outdoors, and lazy spells of relaxing and reading their favourite books and playing games. But we are well aware of how these past months have upturned everything we’ve known about normalcy, with the lockdown being a central part of our lives since the onset of Coronavirus. These life changes have been profound, and the effect on our kids is more than ever -- their sense of familiarity has been jarred, with the reality of schools being closed, classes shifting online, and the summer break being curtailed.  I know as a mother, I have personally felt bad that I can’t give my twins Aarav and Saanvi the summer they work hard for all year.  While this is out of our hands, we all still wish to give our children something special.
Which is why this year, along with a few friends and experts, we have created a very special program to help kids and their parents get excited about spending time together, by engaging in fun and learning experiences.
We are very happy to bring you Camp Google 2020.
At Camp Google 2020, we have a wide range of fun and engaging activities lined up for your kids: 
  • Craft an engaging story using one of our many tools -- for example, tell a wildlife tale using Augmented Reality animals in Search
  • Journey across India exploring the craft and traditions of our country on Google Arts & Culture
  • Learn about our country’s natural resources and how to preserve them on Google Earth
  • Get introduced to the world of programming, with Scratch (you don’t even need to write a single line of code!)
  • … and plenty more!
There’s something new and exciting to learn every day.
At the end of the camp, your child could also win the opportunity to attend a masterclass with the YouTubers themselves, have their prize-winning entries posted on Google India’s social handles, and get the best entry from the storytelling segment published in our Read Along app. 
Beginning 1st July and over the course of the following two weeks, there will be five assignments that kids can access on the Camp Google 2020 website, and Google’s social media page, which will be accompanied by a set of instructions that will answer all your “how to” questions. Each of these assignments will also include elements that teach kids to stay safe online, with guidance on how to be a good digital citizen. We will also have sessions being conducted by leading experts in psychology, to help motivate the children and give them something to aspire to in these times. And remember: assignments can be submitted until 20th July, so make haste!
We hope that the engaging activities we have lined up will bring back the excitement of summer for your kids, and help them develop skills and hobbies they can use all throughout the year. 
Wishing you safe, fun, and memorable times together.

Posted by Sapna Chadha, Senior Director of Marketing, Southeast Asia & India

2020 Brandcast Delivered: A NewFront Just for You



People are streaming more than ever before. But one thing remains consistent: When they’re looking for something personally relevant to them, they turn to YouTube.

Whether it’s celebrating this year’s graduating class with the likes of President and Mrs. Obama, Beyoncé and BTS in YouTube Originals’ “Dear Class of 2020,” reminiscing over Game 6 of the 1993 NBA finals or attempting quarantine glow-ups from James Charles, YouTube’s extensive video library creates a truly meaningful and personal experience for viewers.

And, this year more than ever, we’re seeing people make time for what matters. On June 13, viewers tuned in to watch “Bear Witness, Take Action,” a YouTube Originals live stream that assembled artists and activists to learn, heal and raise awareness for the Equal Justice Initiative. This was part of a new multi-year, $100 million-dollar fund to help amplify the voices and stories of Black Creators.

Today, at our ninth annual NewFront event, we celebrated moments like these through a more personal experience for brands and advertisers with “Brandcast Delivered.”

Throughout the completely reimagined virtual event, we celebrated the diversity of YouTube’s voices and content. Featuring appearances from creators like Lilly Singh, Questlove, Emma Chamberlain and Gordon Ramsay, we constructed a “personal primetime” for each attendee based on their passions and shared how YouTube’s deep connection to people’s lives means better results no matter a marketer’s goal – from reach and awareness to action.



Drive better results throughout the consumer journey


The first and last litmus test for any video platform — be it TV, OLV, OTT, mobile or some new acronym that doesn’t exist yet, is simple: Does it work? On every metric — from incremental audience, to new customers, to sales — YouTube delivers.



Today, we showcased how effective YouTube strategies can produce results through the announcement of the 2020 YouTube Works award recipients. The winners, honored for using YouTube to drive smart results, included Gillette with their “We Believe Campaign” in the Force for Good category, Samsung’s Galaxy Note10 brilliant strategy for the Media Innovation category, Hulu’s “sellouts” campaign winning the Ingenious Insights category for their 100% honest influencer campaign, and Bacardi’s “Beat Machine” bringing home the Grand Prix.



The success of these campaigns stems not only from their understanding of how to leverage YouTube’s full suite of ad solutions, but their belief in YouTube’s unique mission to give everyone a voice. Learn more about the smart ways these brands and others used YouTube to drive incredible business results on yt.be/works.

Reach your audience across screens, and within new content


To drive meaningful results, the first step is reaching customers where they are watching. While YouTube overall reaches more people age 18-49 than all linear TV networks combined,4 we’ve seen a dramatic shift in viewing patterns, as people increasingly watch on connected TVs. In the U.S. alone, over 100 million people watch YouTube and YouTube TV on their TV screens each month.5 And, according to Comscore, YouTube makes up 41% of ad-supported video streaming watch time.6

Last month, we announced YouTube Select — a reimagination of Google Preferred — to make it easier to reach your audiences where they are watching, and find the right content for your brand. YouTube Select includes the same popular creator content, plus a dedicated streaming TV lineup that combines the best of YouTube TV and core lineups content, both on TV screens.

YouTube Select also includes YouTube Originals programming, including the breakout hit, “Instant Influencer with James Charles,” which hit over 50 million views in its first month alone;7 “Retro Tech,” featuring tech guru Marques Brownlee; and “Liza on Demand.” And they’re all returning for new seasons.

Additionally, today we announced that Demi Lovato will be returning for a new YouTube Originals project. Demi’s new docuseries will be a follow-up to her 2017 documentary, “Simply Complicated,”which will bring you on her personal and musical journey over the last three years. David Blaine will also be joining the YouTube Originals slate with a first-of-its-kind special event. We are excited to share more on these shows, among many others, throughout the year.

Uncover new audience insights and convert demand into action


YouTube has become an important part of the modern purchase journey with 70 percent of YouTube viewers saying they bought a brand as a result of seeing it on our platform.8 We’re introducing tools to help marketers understand their audience, as well as complement their awareness initiatives with campaigns that drive conversions.

As people turn to YouTube to discover their next purchase, we’re also seeing an increase in conversions from ads on the platform. In the last twelve months, we’ve been able to help our customers achieve over 950 million conversions9 – generating quality leads, boosting web traffic, and achieving new sales on YouTube.

Last week, we announced Video action campaigns, a simpler and more cost-effective way to drive action on YouTube. It automatically brings video ads that drive action to the YouTube home feed, watch pages, and Google video partner — all within one campaign. To make it even simpler, any future inventory that becomes available, like the What to Watch Next feed, will be automatically included. This way you can save time to focus on strategic initiatives, such as crafting the right creative and messaging for your audiences.

For today's viewers, YouTube is a deeply personal experience. For advertisers and brands, so are our offerings. With flexible solutions across marketing objectives, buyers can uniquely reach and influence audiences based on what’s most important to them.

Check out #Brandcast on Twitter and LinkedIn, and our YouTube channel to see highlights from the show.

Cenk Bulbul, Director of Global Advertiser Marketing at YouTube

1 Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR) Meta Analysis including 55 TAR US studies inclusive of YouTube in-app traffic commissioned by Google running 4/9/2018-10/13/2019 across desktop, mobile and TV; Incremental Reach Value calculated as YouTube’s on-target incremental reach / YouTube’s Total on-target Reach; Standard Deviation 20%; On Target Frequency calculated as On Target Impressions / On Target Reach; Standard Deviation 4; Studies running across 7 demos (P18+, P18-34, P18-49, P18-54, P25-49, P25-54, F25-54)

2 NCSolutions Sales Effect, 2018-2019. Base: a list of YouTube studies selected and compiled by NCSolutions with statistically significant results at an 80% confidence level. This list includes 59 statistically significant YouTube studies across 23 CPG advertisers
3 Commissioned Nielsen MMM Meta-Analysis, 2016-2018. Base: a list of studies selected and compiled by Nielsen, consisting of all available CPG studies completed in 2016-2018 that contain YouTube Select, Other Digital, and TV results. This list includes 45 studies for US Brands across all CPG categories. Effectiveness is defined as total incremental sales per 1,000 impressions. Studies were excluded if either channel had fewer than 500 impressions. Incremental offline retail sales measured for TV represents average across all TV broadcasters.
4 Custom Nielsen study commissioned by Google. Desktop, mobile and TV fusion. TV measurement of Total TV. Reach among persons 18-49 (Live + 7, one minute qualifier), television only, March 1-31, 2020. Results among US TV Households.
5 YouTube Internal Data, US, March 2020
6 Comscore, OTT Intelligence, Mar. 2020, U.S.
7 YouTube Analytics, April-May 202
8 Google/Talkshoppe, US, whyVideo study, n=2000 A18-64 Genpop video users, Feb 2020.
9 Google data, Global, May 2019 - Apr 2020. Total conversions reported for TrueView for action campaigns.

Source: YouTube Blog


2020 Brandcast Delivered: A NewFront Just for You



People are streaming more than ever before. But one thing remains consistent: When they’re looking for something personally relevant to them, they turn to YouTube.

Whether it’s celebrating this year’s graduating class with the likes of President and Mrs. Obama, Beyoncé and BTS in YouTube Originals’ “Dear Class of 2020,” reminiscing over Game 6 of the 1993 NBA finals or attempting quarantine glow-ups from James Charles, YouTube’s extensive video library creates a truly meaningful and personal experience for viewers.

And, this year more than ever, we’re seeing people make time for what matters. On June 13, viewers tuned in to watch “Bear Witness, Take Action,” a YouTube Originals live stream that assembled artists and activists to learn, heal and raise awareness for the Equal Justice Initiative. This was part of a new multi-year, $100 million-dollar fund to help amplify the voices and stories of Black Creators.

Today, at our ninth annual NewFront event, we celebrated moments like these through a more personal experience for brands and advertisers with “Brandcast Delivered.”

Throughout the completely reimagined virtual event, we celebrated the diversity of YouTube’s voices and content. Featuring appearances from creators like Lilly Singh, Questlove, Emma Chamberlain and Gordon Ramsay, we constructed a “personal primetime” for each attendee based on their passions and shared how YouTube’s deep connection to people’s lives means better results no matter a marketer’s goal – from reach and awareness to action.



Drive better results throughout the consumer journey


The first and last litmus test for any video platform — be it TV, OLV, OTT, mobile or some new acronym that doesn’t exist yet, is simple: Does it work? On every metric — from incremental audience, to new customers, to sales — YouTube delivers.



Today, we showcased how effective YouTube strategies can produce results through the announcement of the 2020 YouTube Works award recipients. The winners, honored for using YouTube to drive smart results, included Gillette with their “We Believe Campaign” in the Force for Good category, Samsung’s Galaxy Note10 brilliant strategy for the Media Innovation category, Hulu’s “sellouts” campaign winning the Ingenious Insights category for their 100% honest influencer campaign, and Bacardi’s “Beat Machine” bringing home the Grand Prix.



The success of these campaigns stems not only from their understanding of how to leverage YouTube’s full suite of ad solutions, but their belief in YouTube’s unique mission to give everyone a voice. Learn more about the smart ways these brands and others used YouTube to drive incredible business results on yt.be/works.

Reach your audience across screens, and within new content


To drive meaningful results, the first step is reaching customers where they are watching. While YouTube overall reaches more people age 18-49 than all linear TV networks combined,4 we’ve seen a dramatic shift in viewing patterns, as people increasingly watch on connected TVs. In the U.S. alone, over 100 million people watch YouTube and YouTube TV on their TV screens each month.5 And, according to Comscore, YouTube makes up 41% of ad-supported video streaming watch time.6

Last month, we announced YouTube Select — a reimagination of Google Preferred — to make it easier to reach your audiences where they are watching, and find the right content for your brand. YouTube Select includes the same popular creator content, plus a dedicated streaming TV lineup that combines the best of YouTube TV and core lineups content, both on TV screens.

YouTube Select also includes YouTube Originals programming, including the breakout hit, “Instant Influencer with James Charles,” which hit over 50 million views in its first month alone;7 “Retro Tech,” featuring tech guru Marques Brownlee; and “Liza on Demand.” And they’re all returning for new seasons.

Additionally, today we announced that Demi Lovato will be returning for a new YouTube Originals project. Demi’s new docuseries will be a follow-up to her 2017 documentary, “Simply Complicated,”which will bring you on her personal and musical journey over the last three years. David Blaine will also be joining the YouTube Originals slate with a first-of-its-kind special event. We are excited to share more on these shows, among many others, throughout the year.

Uncover new audience insights and convert demand into action


YouTube has become an important part of the modern purchase journey with 70 percent of YouTube viewers saying they bought a brand as a result of seeing it on our platform.8 We’re introducing tools to help marketers understand their audience, as well as complement their awareness initiatives with campaigns that drive conversions.

As people turn to YouTube to discover their next purchase, we’re also seeing an increase in conversions from ads on the platform. In the last twelve months, we’ve been able to help our customers achieve over 950 million conversions9 – generating quality leads, boosting web traffic, and achieving new sales on YouTube.

Last week, we announced Video action campaigns, a simpler and more cost-effective way to drive action on YouTube. It automatically brings video ads that drive action to the YouTube home feed, watch pages, and Google video partner — all within one campaign. To make it even simpler, any future inventory that becomes available, like the What to Watch Next feed, will be automatically included. This way you can save time to focus on strategic initiatives, such as crafting the right creative and messaging for your audiences.

For today's viewers, YouTube is a deeply personal experience. For advertisers and brands, so are our offerings. With flexible solutions across marketing objectives, buyers can uniquely reach and influence audiences based on what’s most important to them.

Check out #Brandcast on Twitter and LinkedIn, and our YouTube channel to see highlights from the show.

Cenk Bulbul, Director of Global Advertiser Marketing at YouTube

1 Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR) Meta Analysis including 55 TAR US studies inclusive of YouTube in-app traffic commissioned by Google running 4/9/2018-10/13/2019 across desktop, mobile and TV; Incremental Reach Value calculated as YouTube’s on-target incremental reach / YouTube’s Total on-target Reach; Standard Deviation 20%; On Target Frequency calculated as On Target Impressions / On Target Reach; Standard Deviation 4; Studies running across 7 demos (P18+, P18-34, P18-49, P18-54, P25-49, P25-54, F25-54)

2 NCSolutions Sales Effect, 2018-2019. Base: a list of YouTube studies selected and compiled by NCSolutions with statistically significant results at an 80% confidence level. This list includes 59 statistically significant YouTube studies across 23 CPG advertisers
3 Commissioned Nielsen MMM Meta-Analysis, 2016-2018. Base: a list of studies selected and compiled by Nielsen, consisting of all available CPG studies completed in 2016-2018 that contain YouTube Select, Other Digital, and TV results. This list includes 45 studies for US Brands across all CPG categories. Effectiveness is defined as total incremental sales per 1,000 impressions. Studies were excluded if either channel had fewer than 500 impressions. Incremental offline retail sales measured for TV represents average across all TV broadcasters.
4 Custom Nielsen study commissioned by Google. Desktop, mobile and TV fusion. TV measurement of Total TV. Reach among persons 18-49 (Live + 7, one minute qualifier), television only, March 1-31, 2020. Results among US TV Households.
5 YouTube Internal Data, US, March 2020
6 Comscore, OTT Intelligence, Mar. 2020, U.S.
7 YouTube Analytics, April-May 202
8 Google/Talkshoppe, US, whyVideo study, n=2000 A18-64 Genpop video users, Feb 2020.
9 Google data, Global, May 2019 - Apr 2020. Total conversions reported for TrueView for action campaigns.

Source: YouTube Blog


Ever wonder how YouTube works?



YouTube has always been a place where people come to be informed, inspired, and delighted. Over the past few months, as our daily lives have changed in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we’ve seen people turning to YouTube more than ever. As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, we’ve created How YouTube Works — a new website designed to answer the questions we most often receive about what we're doing to foster a responsible platform for our community, and explain our products and policies in detail. How YouTube Works will launch in the U.S. today with plans to launch in more countries over time, starting in mid-June.

Answering the important questions


How YouTube Works addresses some of the important questions we face every day about our platform — involving topics such as child safety, harmful content, misinformation, and copyright, as well as tackling timely issues as they arise, like how we have responded to the COVID-19 crisis and how we support elections. Within the site, we explain how we apply our responsibility principles (the Four Rs) — which work alongside our commitment to users’ security — to tackle these important questions.

Get to know our products and policies


How YouTube Works provides an in-depth look at our products and settings, such as YouTube Search, Recommendations, privacy controls, and Ad Settings, showing how they help people have the best possible experience while they’re using YouTube. Additionally, users will find details of our policies — like our Community Guidelines and monetization policies — so everyone in the community knows what they can and can’t do on YouTube. We explain how our policies are developed and enforced in partnership with a wide range of external experts and Creators.

Learn about the progress and impact we’ve made


To show the progress we’ve made on managing harmful content, How YouTube Works includes facts and figures from our Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, which explain how and why we’ve removed videos recently.

We also provide data, records, and current trends that have emerged on YouTube to help you better understand the next generation of Creators and artists. People can explore the stories behind some of YouTube’s creative entrepreneurs as well, and discover how they are transforming their lives and communities — like Cheong Choon Ng, who built a thriving craft business; and Meredith Bell, who was able to realize her dream of becoming a farmer.

How YouTube Works is an important part of our ongoing transparency efforts to ensure millions of users, creators, and artists can continue making YouTube a place to connect with others, learn about the world, and showcase their creative talents.

Source: YouTube Blog