The world’s #1 video site is “close to signing a deal” with the famous William Morris Agency, home to Hollywood stars like Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, and Michael Bay. According to The New York Times, the concept is to give top talent ownership in the videos they produce, using YouTube’s massive distribution to spread them virally.
While a deal is yet to be signed, this sounds like a more natural fit for YouTube than their attempts so far to go the Hulu route by adding TV shows and B (and C, and D) list movies. Celebrities – at least the savvy ones – are eager to use the Web to improve their image and popularity, and YouTube’s roots (beyond the illegal copyright content) are in user-generated, authentic content.
Not to mention, plenty of stars are already producing video content on their own – just to name a couple, each update to Diddy’s somewhat ridiculous video blog (see below) is getting hundreds of thousands of views, while Ashton Kutcher has launched a Web startup of his own to produce original video for online distribution.
In short, YouTube cutting deals with top Hollywood talent agencies seems like a logical move – even if the money isn’t quite there yet to provide stars with the enormous paychecks they’re familiar with in traditional media.
Additional YouTube Resources from Mashable
- 20+ Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your YouTube Experience