One of the great unknowns in the medium term future of TV is the role that Google-owned YouTube will play.

Having established itself as the dominant force in distributing short-form video, the last couple of years have been much more about licensing long-form TV content for distribution on its platform and deciding what to do about content origination.

On the latter point, it seems ready to roll. Having previously announced that it wanted to team up with established content creators to launch original YouTube channels, it seems that it has now selected a batch of UK partners. With budgets of around £500,000 per annum each, Maverick Television, Fresh One Productions, Hat Trick Productions, ITN, Channelflip and Big Balls Films are all reported to have been signed up to manage channels. Final details are yet to be announced but each partner has been chosen to create distinctive channels that don”t overlap with other launches.

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