We said this was coming a few weeks ago (see YouTube-BBC), but now the deal is sealed: the BBC is putting some of its content on YouTube. But what's surprising is that the BBC has put some very high quality content out there: this isn't just archival material, but three separate YouTube channels for the BBC, BBC Worldwide and BBC News. The deal is non-exclusive and should run for several years, says the Beeb.
The BBC Channel will show clips, trailers and features to drive traffic back to the BBC site, and the pages won't carry ads. BBC Worldwide, meanwhile, will be ad supported (pre-roll ads) and carry clips from Top Gear, The Mighty Boosh and nature programmes by David Attenborough, among other clips from the archive. A third channel, BBC News, will be launched later this year will show 30 news clips per day. Annoyingly, this channel won't be available to those within the UK.