YouTube

Finding some good content on YouTube lately
Survivor South Africa…6 seasons…saving that for after Aus & US wrap
The Great Canadian Baking Show season 2

1 Like

Screen Australia and Google Australia announce Skip Ahead five

Image

Skip Ahead alumni (clockwise from top left) SketchShe, Aunty Donna, BrainCraft and Superwog

Screen Australia and Google Australia today announced applications are open for the fifth instalment of the Skip Ahead initiative. Since 2014 this joint initiative has helped uncover and develop the next generation of YouTube storytellers to expand the vision and scale of their content.

Both scripted narrative and documentary projects are encouraged to apply for Skip Ahead five funding. Applications will be considered from individual content creators (YouTube channels), teams of content creators (multiple YouTube channels), and/or established YouTube channels teaming up with an external producer or production house. Screen Australia and Google Australia will provide a 50/50 joint funding pool of up to $500,000. A maximum of $100,000 will be available per project, with up to six projects to be funded.

To date Skip Ahead has provided over $2 million in funding to support a total of 19 creative teams, whose Skip Ahead-funded projects have accumulated over 42 million views. Skip Ahead alumni include Aunty Donna , Mighty Car Mods , The RackaRacka , BrainCraft , SketchShe , and Superwog .

The initiative has created opportunities for these teams to build sustainable careers in the screen industry. For instance, following on from the success of the Superwog pilot from Skip Ahead three, Princess Pictures confirmed earlier this year that a full six-part series of Superwog would be made. In a landmark move, the series premiered on the Superwog YouTube channel on Sunday 7 October, two days before its broadcast on ABC Comedy and iview.

Australian online content creators who have YouTube channels with a substantial existing subscriber base and/or content that has reached significant viewership are eligible to apply. Collaborations between YouTube creators, as well as collaborations with established production companies, are encouraged.

Screen Australia and Google Australia are particularly interested in supporting content creators from diverse backgrounds in terms of culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, people with disability, geographic and/or socio-economic circumstance.

Eligible applicants can propose the format of the project, including episodic series, a standalone piece of entertainment, or an alternative that is appropriate for their creative concept. The project must premiere on the content creator’s YouTube Channel by the end of September 2019.

Lee Naimo , Online Investment Manager at Screen Australia said: “The success of Skip Ahead alumni such as Aunty Donna , BrainCraft and Superwog is testament to how this initiative can help supercharge careers. I’m looking forwarded to reading applications from exciting new scripted narrative and documentary projects and teams.”

Daniel Stephenson , YouTube Content Partnerships Manager, Australia and New Zealand said: “Over the last four years, Skip Ahead has provided more than $2 million in funding to support the Australian creative industry, and helped local creators to develop their skills and produce more ambitious, longer form content. As we enter year five, we cannot wait to see what stories we might uncover, especially as we branch out and into new formats of online storytelling.”

Applications are due Friday 16 November, 2018. Apply here

1 Like

Now that I’m on the NBN, I just tried some 4K streaming on YouTube, and was very impressed with the picture quality. I do notice the improvement compared to HD (on my 55 inch 4K Sony 2017 model).

There are some good scenic videos, and some faster moving action clips eg. snowboarding taken with a GoPro that also looked very good in 4K.

As good as 4K is on YouTube (and Netflix), for me, it not as noticeable an improvement as going from SD to HD on free to air and Foxtel was. I guess the law of diminishing returns applies here. 8K will probably be a smaller advancement again, particularly on an 55 inch screen.

3 Likes

Yeah, 4K is only really worth it on a screen of around 55-65 inches. Any smaller than that, at a regular TV viewing distance, will absolutely not be worth it. 8K will probably be indistinguishable with a TV sized at less than 75 inches, and really, that proposition is simply not attractive to most consumers. There are people with home theatres who certainly would want such a thing, but I think that’s a very niche market. There’s also the question of logistics (i.e. how are you going to fit a 100" TV through an average doorway?)

3 Likes

Anything over 85 inches will most likely be facilitated via a projector.

An 85 inch TV, aside from the fact that they cost over $5,000 also weigh around 65kg, making them impractical for many.

1 Like

Just incase everyone’s wondering why all the clips related to the Nine Network and affiliates have disappeared from SydneyCityTV Videos:

Full credit to Nine for alerting me about this. To be on the safe side, I’ve also deleted all Nine Network-era WIN Television content and any WIN News clips with full Nine Network-style graphics.

3 Likes

holy shit they’re so fragile what the fuck wow they must be k e of the only ones doing that hey wtf

What a brilliant Christmas gift!

2 Likes

I’m lucky that I managed to delete the content while I could, since the comment was a week old and somehow I missed seeing it earlier - maybe due to the ridiculous “YouTube Studio” changes that are being made (or will be soon).

It’s to my understanding that Seven are precious about having their content on external YT channels, which is why I privatised the Seven-related clips a while ago.

Although I’m seriously thinking about deleting all the Seven-related clips for good too, because I see it as more of a loss for them than yours truly. There’ll also be absolutely no sympathy from me if either network complains about needing a clip I no longer have when they urgently need something (I know for a fact that snippets of SydneyCityTV Videos uploads have been used for things that have actually aired on TV before) for a presenter flashback or tribute package.

2 Likes

It really is a stupid, short sighted view to be taking. Sure they own copyright on the content but if it is advertising their network and creating a connection with viewers it can only be to their benefit.

I’ve uploaded some rare stuff to YouTube from the '80s and '90s. if one of these media companies decides to issue copyright strikes against me and the account gets removed from YouTube a valuable resource is lost to many. I won’t be uploading any of the clips again and the tapes, being around 30 years old, are just about cactus and will probably soon be tossed. The computer I had that stuff stored on went belly up years ago.

15 Likes

The irony is so many of the clip shows / flashbacks our networks have ran in the last 5 to 10 years are full of clips they’ve ripped from YouTube themselves without crediting the uploaders…

9 Likes

@SydneyCityTV You should contact them to see if you can just remove particular videos that they don’t approve of. Your argument about your videos being used by the networks is a good one, as is NewsWeary’s.

I had Nine issue a copyright strike against me a few years ago for a clip of André Rieu eating Vegemite on Kerri-Anne. Because my account had videos I didn’t want to loose I deleted all the Nine content. These days I usually make such videos private and just post the link.

Uploading live music videos I have shot are fraught too as YouTube matches the music and words with the original composition then monetizes the video by sticking an ad in front of it.

3 Likes

I really hope this doesn’t affect the excellent channels on YouTube with archival television content (although your channel did have some of that too). Some of those channels are operated by members here, who would know who they are. As NewsWeary mentioned, the old content is certainly a valuable timepiece, the newer material would become interesting as well. It generates discussion between us all here with learning about the past or reminising about the past, and also making judgement about trivial things (I love doing that here!).

I am aware that it may be their content, but you don’t receive monetization for uploading it, do you? I can understand the takedown if you do, but I can’t really if you don’t. But I don’t know much about this sort of thing, so i’m probably not qualified to comment. It just seems like good free advertising, and I thought they would appreciate that.

The last question, where will networks source their footage from for tribute stories if they take down channels for copyright. Like others have mentioned, most is sourced from YouTube, they certainly don’t seem to have much archival footage or simply can’t be bothered digging it up!

3 Likes

Thankfully, this is how YouTube has handled all copyright infringements I’ve received in the last few years. It never used to be that lenient. I lost at least 2 channels under their old three strikes rule a decade ago.

6 Likes

I never have nor will make any money from material which the networks own the copyright to, for obvious reasons. Any uploading of TV content to YouTube is really just something I do as a hobby/for the love of it, and of course to generate discussion here on Media Spy.

Not everyone lives in Sydney…or the areas of Regional NSW I’ve been fortunate enough to visit in recent years (believe me, modern technology has made it a heck of a lot easier to capture media content from different regions than it used to be!) so I’d personally like to think that people here appreciate my uploads for the same reason I appreciate seeing uploads from other metropolitan & regional markets of Australia! :slight_smile:

5 Likes

I think it would be worthwhile if you reply to Channel Nine on YouTube with words to that effect.

It will come back to bite them sooner or later as others have pointed out.

I like many others here have appreciated all the efforts you and others have made in uploading content to YT over the years.

3 Likes

When your channel is still too small for them to give a shit :heart_eyes:

No but this is seriously cooked. Unless you’re uploading entire TV shows or news bulletins (which I know some people here do), you’ve probably got a claim under the ‘fair dealing’ part of the Copyright Act - as confusing and in dire need of a re-write as it is.

4 Likes

This is just a suggestion for people who have media-based channels on YouTube, but one thing that i’m planning on doing is uploading all of my recorded content onto Archive.Org. At least the content will be permanently archived and they cannot get removed by copyright infringement.

I’ve already started to upload content onto it: https://archive.org/details/@southcoast_tv

11 Likes

Well I’m not in the business of uploading entire programs/news bulletins. Others may do so but that’s at their own risk.

Maybe sometimes I’ll upload some full news reports/segments from a program or bulletin, but only in moderation (ie, not every individual segment of every program/bulletin recorded) and often with the “Coming Up” preview and report intro that mightn’t make it to the clip posted by Nine themselves online.

2 Likes