YouTube wants to steal news publishers back from Facebook

Today after discussions with Digital News Initiative participants, Google announced at an event in Berlin that it’s working on a new product for news publishers to entice them to upload to its service directly. Called the YouTube Embedded Player Pilot, it’s a new service for news companies that allows more control over the YouTube player embedded on their own sites so they can build their own audiences and sell ads on original content. It gives news publishers full control over the embedded version of YouTube videos uploaded onto their own channels. Publishers will get control over the ads that are loaded, sales rights and revenue share. The rights on embedded players means they’re able to sell their own advertising without Google taking a cut, then backfill with Google’s advertising where needed. Google will work closely with publishers as part of this, providing best practices on how to use the player and what content to embed. The program is proposed to be a way to replace the in-house created video players often seen on sites like the BBC or The Guardian.