Google Partners with Embassy Row for Second Original Series on YouTube
This story was written by Tameka Kee.
"Poptub," an entertainment-focused original video series, has been quietly making the rounds on YouTube for the past month, the Hollywood Reporter reports. The series, which is produced by NY-based Embassy Row, is supposed to be an "Entertainment Tonight" for the YouTube generation, with a mix of interviews of Internet celebrities like Obama Girl and more traditional red carpet events. It's launch was overlooked amidst the hype surrounding Google's (NSDQ: GOOG) other branded entertainment play, Seth MacFarlane's original series "Cartoon Cavalcade of Comedy."
Like Cavalcade, Poptub resides on its own YouTube channel and is distributed through Google AdSense (via "Gadgets" or widgets), increasing the number of eyeballs for potential advertisers. Ad revenue will be split between Google, Pepsi-backed Embassy Row, and the Website that hosted the clip. The launch was kept under wraps to allow the show to generate its own YouTube buzz. But a month later, Poptub only has about 3,600 subscribers--modest, in contrast to some YouTube channels that have hundreds of thousands--but YouTube brass say that the stats should pick up once the series gets wider distribution across the content network.
In fact, Dan Goodman, president of the digital division at Media Rights Capital (MRC) credits Google's content network as the primary driver of traffic to Cavalcade's YouTube channel, SethComedy. Currently, there are more than 112,000 SethComedy subscribers. LA- and NY-based MRC brokered the deal between Google, MacFarlane and Burger King, Cavalcade's primary sponsor.
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By Tameka Kee