Official YouTube Blog

LIVE TOMORROW: Tune into the BRIT Awards 2019, featuring George Ezra, Dua Lipa and Jorja Smith on YouTube

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

It’s that time of year again. With awards season in full swing, one of the most anticipated musical celebrations of the year has arrived: The BRITs. Known for its memorable performances such as Stormzy’s “Blinded By Your Grace Pt 2” in the rain and Liam Gallagher’s moving tribute to Manchester—plus top pop culture moments (Ginger Spice’s iconic Union Jack dress, anyone?)—the BRIT Awards are a celebration of UK musical talent on a global stage. And this year for the first time, YouTube Music is the Official Music App of the 2019 Awards and will provide one-of-a-kind access to the show for fans around the world.

For the sixth consecutive year, for those outside the UK, YouTube is letting you in on the action with a livestream of the show from the O2 Arena in London. Just tune in at youtube.com/BRITs on your favorite screen—whether that’s your mobile, tablet or TV—tomorrow, February 20 at 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. GMT. Following the show, no matter your location, you can watch and rewatch the performances on YouTube Music.

Adding to tomorrow’s excitement, YouTube star and global sensation, Todrick Hall, who has 2.9 million subscribers, will present the YouTube Livestream, giving people outside the UK incredible behind-the-scenes access from the show, while providing a front row seat to the drama, gossip, and artist interactions. Vick Hope will join Hall as co-host; and once the show is over, they will continue broadcasting an everyone’s-invited Official After Party on YouTube, recapping the biggest moments from the night.

This year, nominated stars like George Ezra, Dua Lipa, The 1975, Little Mix and Jorja Smith—who either got their start on YouTube, launched albums on the platform, or have used it to grow their fanbases to a global level—are set to perform. Be sure to tune in to see their show-stopping, on-stage renditions of their beloved hits.

For the second year running, comedian Jack Whitehall will be bringing his brilliant jokes and outrageous capers as the event’s host to make the night one you’ll never forget. After all, what could be better than a mix of top-rated musical talent and hilarious antics to make for an unforgettable night?

And as a special treat for Londoners who didn’t score tickets to the O2: select winners from the night will be projected gloriously onto County Hall and Old Billingsgate to make for a magical, one-of-a-kind YouTube Music moment atop the Thames. There will also be a chance to see your favorite nominees and winners celebrated on billboards throughout the country, and YouTube adverts showcasing the official BRITs content on the YouTube Music App.

Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of BPI & BRIT Awards said, “The BRIT Awards is the most spectacular night in music, showcasing the exceptional talent of a diverse range of British artists at home and around the world. We have seen tremendous growth in the digital and social reach of the BRITs, and partnering with YouTube once again for our live stream of the show enables us to introduce British music to a global audience that is growing all the time.”

And in case you missed it, after the show you’ll find performances from the artists on a special, exclusive YouTube Music BRITs playlist. But for those who want to enjoy the BRIT Awards LIVE—don’t forget to tune in at youtube.com/BRITs on February 20 at 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. GMT.

—The YouTube Music Team

Introducing our new strikes system

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

We're updating the way we give Community Guidelines strikes to be more transparent and consistent. Based on feedback from creators, we're giving everyone new opportunities and better resources to understand our Community Guidelines. We're also revamping our notifications and to give more transparency into why a strike happened, and introducing a consistent penalty across strike types.

Read more about it on the Creator blog.

State of the Union 2019: Live on YouTube

Monday, February 4, 2019

Key moments throughout U.S. presidential history have been captured on YouTube, from visiting American troops and celebrating life’s achievements, to taking the oath of office and hosting world leaders. As President Trump begins his third year in office, this tradition continues.

As we have done since 2010, YouTube will live stream the President’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, February 5 at 9 p.m. ET, as well as the response. This year, you can tune in to live streams in both English and Spanish. Here are the channels where you can follow the coverage:

Brandon Feldman, YouTube News and Politics

YouTube Music comes to Sonos

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

YouTube Music just got a little bit louder! Beginning today, YouTube Music is now available to play on all Sonos speakers. Through the Sonos app, fans around the world with a YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium subscription can now easily play official songs, albums, thousands of playlists, and artist radio—on top of YouTube’s tremendous catalog of remixes, live performances, covers that you can’t find anywhere else.

Check out some of the YouTube Music features available on Sonos:

New Releases

Find a collection of the freshest music specifically tailored to your tastes. Listen to newly released songs and albums. This week, my list featured Maggie Rogers, YouTube Music's latest Artist on the Rise.

Top YouTube Charts

YouTube Charts are the best way to see what’s hot in music right now. The Top 100 Songs chart catalogs the most popular songs globally, and you’ll also find a local version that’s tailored to what’s trending in your country.

Your Mixtape

This personalized playlist features a mix of your favorites and new songs we think you’ll love. It’s constantly updating, so you can always count on Your Mixtape to deliver a new combination right at your fingertips within the Sonos app.

Library

Easily find your saved playlists, albums, and songs in your Library.

Available in all countries where YouTube Music and YouTube Premium are available, fans with a subscription can now easily play YouTube Music through a Sonos app. Already have Sonos and ready to try YouTube Music? Start your free trial at youtube.com/musicpremium, and learn more about setting up your account with Sonos here.

Brandon Bilinski, Product Manager for YouTube Music, who recently listened to "Light On" by Maggie Rogers on his Sonos Play:5

Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

Friday, January 25, 2019

When recommendations are at their best, they help users find a new song to fall in love with, discover their next favorite creator, or learn that great paella recipe. That's why we update our recommendations system all the time—we want to make sure we’re suggesting videos that people actually want to watch.

You might remember that a few years ago, viewers were getting frustrated with clickbaity videos with misleading titles and descriptions (“You won’t believe what happens next!”). We responded by updating our system to focus on viewer satisfaction instead of views, including measuring likes, dislikes, surveys, and time well spent, all while recommending clickbait videos less often. More recently, people told us they were getting too many similar recommendations, like seeing endless cookie videos after watching just one recipe for snickerdoodles. We now pull in recommendations from a wider set of topics—on any given day, more than 200 million videos are recommended on the homepage alone. In fact, in the last year alone, we’ve made hundreds of changes to improve the quality of recommendations for users on YouTube.

We’ll continue that work this year, including taking a closer look at how we can reduce the spread of content that comes close to—but doesn’t quite cross the line of—violating our Community Guidelines. To that end, we’ll begin reducing recommendations of borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways—such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11.

While this shift will apply to less than one percent of the content on YouTube, we believe that limiting the recommendation of these types of videos will mean a better experience for the YouTube community. To be clear, this will only affect recommendations of what videos to watch, not whether a video is available on YouTube. As always, people can still access all videos that comply with our Community Guidelines and, when relevant, these videos may appear in recommendations for channel subscribers and in search results. We think this change strikes a balance between maintaining a platform for free speech and living up to our responsibility to users.

This change relies on a combination of machine learning and real people. We work with human evaluators and experts from all over the United States to help train the machine learning systems that generate recommendations. These evaluators are trained using public guidelines and provide critical input on the quality of a video.

This will be a gradual change and initially will only affect recommendations of a very small set of videos in the United States. Over time, as our systems become more accurate, we'll roll this change out to more countries. It's just another step in an ongoing process, but it reflects our commitment and sense of responsibility to improve the recommendations experience on YouTube.

— The YouTube Team

YouTube TV’s gearing up for the Big Game and going nationwide

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Nearly two years ago, we launched YouTube TV, a new and reimagined way to enjoy cable-free live TV on your terms. Since then, we've been working to make sure that people in the top 100 markets in the United States can watch their favorite sports, news, and shows—without the hassles that come with traditional cable TV. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’re bringing this experience to the rest of the country. YouTube TV is going nationwide!

Just in time for the Big Game, you can now bring together some tasty game day snacks with the full experience of YouTube TV. That’s exciting news for living rooms, cord-cutters, and cord-nevers in neighborhoods far and wide, from Bozeman to Gainesville, Anchorage to Yuma, and Erie to Topeka.

We’re rolling out YouTube TV to 95 markets starting today, covering over 98 percent of households in the United States. The remainder will follow shortly thereafter. You can see the latest list in our FAQs.

Since YouTube TV’s early days, it’s been important for us to create an experience that brings you the best of your favorite TV content. As part of that effort, we've offered local feeds from broadcasters, allowing you to catch up with the content that matters to you. With this national expansion, we're providing complete local affiliate coverage by providing local feeds from the four largest broadcasters in over 90 percent of the markets where YouTube TV is available. Here's what this means: more game-winners from your hometown favorite, more breaking news and stories you need to know, and overall, a more relevant TV experience.

Just as a quick reminder, YouTube TV offers cable-free live TV through a simple, best-in-class, and hassle-free experience. It includes:

Over 60 networks, such as ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. Plus, popular cable networks like TNT, TBS, CNN, ESPN, FX and on-demand programming.
A cloud DVR with no storage space limits. This enables subscribers to record live TV and never run out of storage space. Also, you can record shows simultaneously without using data or space on your device.
The ability to watch YouTube TV on any screen – mobile devices, tablets, computers and TVs.
Six accounts per household. Every YouTube TV membership comes with six accounts, each with its own unique recommendations and a personal DVR with no storage space limits.
Half the cost of cable with zero commitments. A YouTube TV membership is only $40 a month and there are no commitments – you can cancel anytime.

So prep those buffalo wings, get ready for some memorable commercials, and kick back and enjoy the award-winning, cable-free live TV service people love. We’re excited and committed to continue making YouTube TV the live TV experience that's tailor-made for you. And to all our new neighbors and members—welcome to the family!

Posted by Ben Moores, Program Manager, YouTube TV, who will be rooting for L.A. next Sunday

GNI YouTube innovation funding: supporting 87 news organizations in 23 countries to build video capabilities and innovate with new formats

Monday, December 17, 2018

In July, as part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), we announced innovation funding to help newsrooms and publishers strengthen their online video capabilities and experiment with new formats for video journalism. Hundreds of organizations submitted proposals through an open application process and today we’re sharing the 87 recipients.

Hailing from 23 countries around the world, they represent a diverse array of broadcasters, traditional and digital publishers, local media, agencies and creators, but all share a commitment to quality journalism and a spirit of innovation.

Many of these projects are focused on expanding newsroom video operations and trying out new ways of reporting news through video — from reaching younger audiences online to exploring live and fact-checking formats. Other projects look at the sustainability of news organizations, including work on new business models and programs to support a healthy news ecosystem. Here’s a sample of some of the projects funded:

Advance Local (United States): U.S. publisher Advance Local will build out a new format for local news storytelling, enabling them to connect more deeply with their communities across the country. They will start in Michigan, where MLive Media Group (Mlive.com) will connect directly with its viewers, providing avenues for action on topics of important local interest, giving viewers the information they need to have their voice heard on issues of the day.

The Economist (United Kingdom): British publisher The Economist will strengthen its video production facilities and expertise, enabling it to launch a weekly video format that will explore the true story behind trending news topics. Through live streaming and audience engagement tools, viewers will be able to interact with the story along with the producers, their processes and sources. The new format aims to give viewers the tools to spot misinformation, analyze news sources and join the conversation.

HugoDécrypte (France): A top French news creator, HugoDécrypte will staff and train a production team to create a studio-based live news show. The show will form an on-screen meeting place for HugoDécrypte’s YouTube community to learn about and debate the key news issues of the day. It will consist of regular segments including news bulletins, fact-checking and interviews with well-known political figures and subject matter experts.

La Nación (Argentina): One of Argentina’s leading newspapers, La Nación will enhance their video operations at large. In business since 1870, La Nación has a rich history in print journalism, which they are extending to video. This funding will be used to grow their video team, improve digital video skills and increase output, enabling them to deliver engaging content, including behind the scenes snapshots of their hard-hitting investigative journalism and fresh takes on news of the day through video digests.

Narasi TV (Indonesia): Independent Indonesian journalist Najwa Shihab’s media company will mobilize its community across the country’s 34 provinces. It will host workshops to train budding citizen journalists on visual storytelling, news video production and media literacy, encouraging more Indonesians to become credible content creators as well as critical consumers of media. Meanwhile, Narasi TV’s own investigative journalism team will staff up their video team to produce more in-depth reports, particularly in hotly contested parts of the country in the run-up to Indonesia’s general elections.

Thairath (Thailand): The digital arm of one of Thailand’s oldest news publishers, Thairath, will create a rights management platform for Thailand’s freelance journalists. This platform will help Thai “stringers” more easily manage their footage rights from media companies. By protecting and promoting the important work of independent Thai journalists, the effort will support both the Thai media ecosystem and global news agencies seeking news about Thailand.

Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to supporting a strong future for news video. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing insights gained from the projects and giving newsrooms the opportunity to benefit from the learnings, as we work together to support the development of long-term, sustainable news video businesses.

For more information about YouTube’s work with the news industry, please visit our website. We look forward to seeing how our partners across the globe push the boundaries of video journalism.

Timothy Katz, Director of News Partnerships, YouTube

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