Apple TV Taps YouTube to Broaden Content Menu

Apple Inc., in an effort to markedly broaden the appeal of its fledgling Apple TV, has partnered with YouTube Inc. to let users access the popular video site’s content via the device.

The free YouTube software upgrade is expected to be available in June.

Under its latest content effort, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user’s widescreen TV. Using Apple TV’s interface and Apple Remote, viewers can browse, find and watch free videos from YouTube in their living room.

The Apple TV-YouTube deal will provide viewers thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos at launch, with thousands more added each week until the full YouTube catalog is available this fall, the companies said.

In separate but related news, global music giant EMI, announced a deal with YouTube parent Google Inc. where it will make its vast audio assets and music videos available to YouTuve users in an effort to drive creation of more advanced, or full-bodied, user-generated videos. The duo said a business model for the deal will follow.

Apple TV connects to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed AirPort 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking, it can auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers right to a TV without any wires.

The deal represents the broadest acceptance – and implementation of – YouTube’s user-generated content by a video services provider, with previous deals comprising partnerships limited in scope. Telcos and cablecos have teamed with similar sites such as Revver to add online videos to their wireline programming lineup, an emerging trend expected to accelerate.

Companies that partner with the likes of YouTube plan on the deals bringing them fresh video content, and perhaps more importantly, a chunk of the gigantic online audience to their initially more mainstream TV services. In many instances, however, the deals and content come first with business models and plans for content monetization to follow.

The traffic aggregation value is the primary value of YouTube, said a Google exec earlier this month at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas.

The ever-broadening menu of content types available through Apple TV includes movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts. Apple users can choose from over 500 movies and 350 TV shows in near DVD quality; over 5 million songs; 5,000 music videos; 100,000 podcasts; and 20,000 audiobooks from the iTunes Store. Users can hear their favorite music on a home entertainment system and view slideshows of their photo albums on a widescreen TV.

Apple also is offering a new Apple TV build-to-order option with a 160GB hard drive that offers four times the storage for up to 200 hours of video, 36,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each.

Apple Inc. www.apple.com
EMI Music www.emigroup.com
Google Inc. www.google.com
YouTube Inc. www.youtube.com

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines