You Tube Direct and its secret mission in SF
This morning many outlets were reporting about a secret mission being launched by YTD with a local TV Station in SF. See here, here and here .
It will be interesting to see what station they are working with. KGO is one of our clients, KTVU has KickApps and KPIX has the CBS o/o silverlight solution. I suspect they will be working wtih KPIX.
Current installations of YTD mainly foucs on commentary type of situations WHDH is a current partner here is an example.
You Tube Direct is a good start, but is lacking on a couple of fronts:
1) You need developers to set up the platform and your own infastructure. Many local TV stations dont have the manpower to set up and manage YTD.
2) Currently does not support photos. Less than 10% of content uploaed to local tv stations via UGC platform is video content
3) Pre registration is necessary: users must already have a YT account before they can upload content. If you are looking for quick access to eye witness videos , requiring registration is counter intuitive.
The YTD team is smart and talented, but the product needs a few tweaks before it is ready for primetime
