YouTube is extending its original programming initiative into Europe, with at least 60 new video channels from media companies including Britain’s BBC, London-based FreemantleMedia and the Netherlands’ Endemol.
The Google Inc.-owned video site said Monday the new channels will be in addition to the 100 channels launched in the U.S. last year. Like the pre-existing American offerings, the European channels will have a mix of celebrity-oriented, niche, and established programs. “Some of the channels are personality-driven, others are from partners who are totally passionate about a subject,” Ben McOwen Wilson, who manages YouTube’s northern European partnerships, said in a telephone interview ahead of the announcement. He said the goal was to let content producers come up with something they couldn’t deliver on TV.
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