CBS begins adding full length TV shows to YouTube

by Brad Linder Oct 11th 2008

You know how online video site Hulu is working to differentiate itself from YouTube by focusing on professionally produced video from TV networks? Yeah, YouTube's starting to branch out into that territory too now. CBS and YouTube recently began rolling out full length episodes of selected TV shows from the CBS archives.

Right now there's not a ton of content to choose from. Just a few episodes each of Beverly Hills 90210, MacGuyver, Star Trek, and The Young And the Restless.

Unlike typical YouTube videos, these episodes will include pre-roll and interstitional ads, much like the video ads you find at Hulu.

To be honest, it's much harder to find full length TV episodes on YouTube right now than it is on Hulu. A search for "Star Trek" brings up a ton of short clips that you have to sift through to find the 5 full length episodes. But if CBS rolls out more content and if YouTube signs additional partners, perhaps the company will develop a better system for finding TV programs on the site.

[via Advertising Age and Gizmodo]

Tags: cbs, hulu, online-video, tv, youtube

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bill said 1:18PM on 10-11-2008

"MacGuyver" is spelled MacGyver.

Sean Taylor said 1:18PM on 10-11-2008

Doesn't work for UK users.

PheeniX said 2:20PM on 10-11-2008

It also doesn't work for Germany. :-(

Josh said 3:15PM on 10-11-2008

Yeah, I'll stick with Hulu. I love Youtube (who doesn't?) but Hulu is perfect for my tv watching needs. It's the first good thing the studios have done in a long time.

chris joseph said 3:18PM on 10-11-2008

"embedding disabled by request"

Do the studios know how incredibly stupid this is? even the official music videos mostly have embedding disabled. If I blog their music video, it links to the page and the producer still gets credit for it. If I blog the TV show, the commercials are still intact. There is no compelling reason for YouTube to allow them this request.

I've embedded whole movies and TV shows off Hulu, no problem, because there is no such restriction.

saltrix said 4:31PM on 10-11-2008

don't forget that imdb.com is linked to hulu now, and that can make it a lot easier to find the specific episode you are looking for. :)

Zach said 4:40PM on 10-11-2008

CBS has separate playlists for the whole length episodes:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=20048A7C541C941C

Kevinm said 4:48PM on 10-11-2008

Hmm the ads aren't there right now for me...

richard.gailey said 7:23PM on 10-11-2008

UK users will have to use the Hotspot Shield to access this as it seems that it's only for USA people only. Pretty fucking annoying that this is still going on, why can't they make it globally available for everyone. Either make it easily available or people will simply pirate. The choice is simple.

Khaled said 7:24PM on 10-11-2008

"This video is not available in your country."
yawn, BT/etc is more useful, sorry CBS, better luck next time..

WolvenSpectre said 8:09AM on 10-12-2008

Well as a Canadian it doesn't work for me either, but remember this isn't CBS's fault, they only have rights to distribute in the US, and for example here in the "Great White North" those rights are often already held by CTV or Global and they stream them.

I wish the people that purchase the brodcasting and distribution rights for a region would partner up with each other and share the infrastructure costs and arrange local regional advertisments for the same stream.

If they don't wise up and start distributing this on a global internet basis soon people who control their content, mainly independant media will lap them and the old favourites and darlings of the media world will be left hard pressed to catch up as the independants attract a global fanbase where they are stuck with their smaller regional ones.

WolvenSpectre said 8:09AM on 10-12-2008

Also it is ironic that a show, MacGyver, that is so Canadian that it supposedly surpassed the required CanCon (the standard for determining if a production has enough Canadian Content [ie number of Canadians on and off camera, the number of locations shot in Canada, etc] to qualify for govermental support or be classified as a show that Canadian broadcasters can use to count towards their required Canadian Content) can't be shown here in Canada on YouTube

Oh the Irony!

gooby said 8:09AM on 10-12-2008

So really, all these just work in the US. Great. Just great.

miko said 8:09AM on 10-12-2008

itz simple, you can't buy usa products from the adverts so they won't let you see the videos.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters