ITV executive chairman Michael Grade has slammed YouTube, calling it a "parasite" that lives off original content created by broadcasters.
According to reports in the Media Guardian, Grade dismissed Google-owned YouTube, asserting that:
"The day that Google or Joost or any of these people start investing £1bn a year in UK content is the day I'll start to be worried…They're all parasites, they just live off our content is what they do. As long as we can create the content, the content is the keys to the castle for us going forward."
Meanwhile over at the BBC, BBC Worldwide is set to launch an EastEnders YouTube channel housing some of the most famous clips from the long-running soap and related content such as Shane Ritchie's interview on Parkinson and Alistair McGowan's parody Big 'Enders.
Ultimate EastEnders destination
BBC Worldwide claims that it will be the "ultimate EastEnders destination".
BBC Worldwide's director of digital media, Simon Danker, said: "We're committed to building more communities on the web around shows like EastEnders that people are really passionate about."
"This dedicated YouTube channel will enable even more engagement with this community as well as exposing one of the BBC's most popular shows to new global audiences," says Patrick Walker, YouTube director of video partnerships for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
