Weir's Way and Taggart to find their way on to YouTube

Published on Tuesday 29 June 2010 14:55

SCOTTISH Television is to offer thousands of hours of programmes to a global audience after signing a major deal with video-streaming website YouTube.

• Viewers across the world will be able to follow Tom Weir's travels on YouTube. Picture: Stephen Mansfield

Viewers around the world will be have access to 2,500 hours of archive content, including popular series such as Weir's Way, Thingummyjig and Take The High Road. The YouTube channel will also act as a ''catch-up'' service, which will see editions of current shows including The Hour, Scotland's Missing Mums and Australian drama, Underbelly uploaded shortly after initial broadcast.

Bobby Hane, STV's managing director of broadcasting, said the broadcaster was attracted to Google-owned YouTube because of the website's global reach.

He said. "They are the number one place for online video content. I think this will be a very interesting partnership because our traditional patch in Scotland was originally mapped out by television transmitters. Here we are in 2010 able to free ourselves from the constraints of television and get our content online as much as is possible."w

Mr Hane said that the move had a commercial imperative, raising the possibility of tapping into the potential 400 million audience that already uses YouTube. No figures have emerged for the cost of the deal, which is expected to commence in autumn.

The Glasgow-based firm is the third British broadcaster, after Channel 4 and Five, to make its catch-up service available via YouTube. STV already has a viewing service on its home website. Mr Hane said that the shift was not a sign that it had failed, rather the company is exploiting the full potential of the web and its archive.

"Broadcasters and producers are coming to terms with the impact of the internet and I think this is a positive way of making and acquiring programmes and continuing to get value out of them," he said. "The days of just being a TV broadcaster are coming to an end. We have to be more than that, we have to be a full digital media company."

Andrew Jones, senior lecturer in Communication and Media Robert Gordon University, said that while the move was potentially lucrative, there were potential pitfalls.

"Mainstream media have realised that to reach a younger audience, they have to have a presence on Youtube," he said. "But it stands or falls on the strength of the content, not just on its form of distribution.

OLD FAVOURITES

Classic STV shows which will appear on YouTube channel include:

• Weir's Way: Classic hill walking show starring Tom Weir.

• High Road: Scottish soap opera filmed in Loch Lomondside village of Luss.

• Taggart: Hit detective series, episodes will appear on the channel when a licence becomes available.

• Thingummyjig: 1970s Highland dance and music show, much mocked nowadays but popular in its time. So while it's very wise what STV have done, they will need to think very carefully about how they'll reach the target audience with that sort of content, because archive material will have an appeal to certain demographics - it is one of they're key assets and gives them a potential source of revenue - but they have to find a commercial way to make it work."

Mr Jones said that STV would have to attract a considerable amount of ‘‘page hits'' to make it a strong source of advertising revenue and that the only way to do this would be to create a "clear and distinct identity" based around its uniquely Scottish content.

The channel also plans to debut new comedy shows on the web channel before it goes to broadcast and canvas public opinion as way of developing its content. Mr Jones also supported this as "smart move", stating that it would help STV "build up a head of steam" among the internet audience for individual shows before launching on the public at large.