YouTube Launches Porn TV !

Google Inc. on Friday announced the creation of around 100 online video "channels" on its YouTube website that will have new original programming involving celebrities such as such as singer Madonna, rapper Jay-Z, including adult movie stars like Ashton Kutcher and former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal and his infamous Sextape Saga !

Well, this is of course a Halloween joke.

YouTube launches bold entertainment venture with 100 channels

100 content creators, from Madonna to The Wall Street Journal.

The Google-owned video site said it intended to launch more than 100 new video channels.

The partners include an array of Hollywood production companies, celebrities and new media groups that will produce mainly niche-oriented videos.

It is unknown how much of this content will be available to Australian audiences.

YouTube is paying $100 million to producers, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The money is an advance on advertising money the videos will bring in, and Google will recoup its portion first before splitting the proceeds. Advances are belived to be as high as $5 million per channel.

Google declined to offer financial details of the deals, but said the majority of revenue would go to partners.

Lionsgate is presenting a fitness channel, and other channels will be launched by news satire the Onion, professional wrestling's WWE, online magazine Slate and news service Thomson Reuters.

Participants include Madonna, former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, comedian Amy Poehler, actor Ashton Kutcher, "Office" star Rainn Wilson, spiritual doctor Deepak Chopra and "Modern Family" actress Sofia Vergara. Most are creating channels through their production companies. Madonna is a partner with the dance channel DanceOn, while O'Neal plans the Comedy Shaq Network.

The channels will roll out beginning this month, though most will premiere next year.

YouTube says the channels will add 25 hours of new original content daily, with dozens of Web series debuting at scheduled times.

Ultimately, YouTube is aiming to create a new digital video platform that will rival television programming.

In a blog posting Friday night, YouTube said the channels are being developed "specifically for the digital age". The video site compared the expanded video offerings to the advent of cable television.

YouTube said it was trying to build a more advertiser-friendly product of professional-quality video, as opposed to simply user-created videos.

It believes advertisers generally prefer to have their ads matched with known quantities.

YouTube has also previously tried to urge viewers to stay longer with TV-like services like the YouTube Leanback, which continuously plays a personalized selection of videos.

Google is also looking to add professionally produced content to its huge roster of user-generated videos, to give users of its Google TV platform something to watch.

Major Hollywood networks such as News Corp.'s Fox and Walt Disney's ABC have blocked their content from being shown on Google TV because the sides have been unable to come to a licensing deal that the networks believes pays them fairly.

Networks also don't want to jeopardize their lucrative relationship with pay TV distributors like Comcast and DirecTV.

Google is a platform that has been adopted by set-top box maker Logitech, which makes a device called a Logitech Revue that sells for $100.