YouTube is once again writing checks to people who will make stuff for the world’s largest video site. And it wants to spend some of that money on videos aimed at kids.
YouTube Wants Its Own Kids Shows, Too
And it’s willing to pay for them -- just like Amazon and Netflix.
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Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.
Reports about YouTube’s interest in kids’ programming have percolated for a while. Now here’s another indicator of its direction: A job posting for a “Head of Family Entertainment and Learning, YouTube Originals.”
YouTube Originals is the newest version of YouTube’s plan to get people to make exclusive content for the site. In this iteration, which it acknowledged last month, the company is looking to fund more ambitious shows than you would typically find on the site.
YouTube creators and distributors I’ve talked to have said the company seems most focused on targeting existing YouTube stars who generally attract a teen and tween audience in this round of funding.
But it would be reasonable for YouTube to focus on younger kids’ stuff as well. That kind of programming does very well on rival platforms like Netflix and Amazon, and programmers like Disney and Sesame Street are doing well on YouTube, too.
Here’s YouTube’s comment on the posting, via a PR rep’s email: “For years we’ve seen a lot of traction across both YouTube EDU and family entertainment. This role will help us further build out these offerings.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
