YouTube set to upend window strategies

Traditional windowing patterns will be further disrupted as producers and broadcasters turn to YouTube to supplement audiences, an exec from the Google-owned video platform has said.  

Luca Forlin, head of business strategy and operations EMEA at YouTube, said the use of the platform as a DTC and marketing tool was set to grow. 

Forlin was among YouTube execs at MIA in Rome today to talk up its place within the TV landscape, and he pointed to French influencer Inoxtag’s release of documentary Kaizen as an example. 

The show tracked Inoxtag’s climb of Everest and was released in cinemas in September last year, with 300,000 fans paying to watch screenings before being released on YouTube days later, where it was available for free. 

It then aired on France’s TF1 two weeks later and Forlin said the windowing strategy underlined the changing habits of viewers, with the platform also being used by streamers such as Disney+ and Paramount+ to push new seasons of Andor and Lioness respectively. 

“Discovery works consistently and strongly, the strategy of having a first episode up, for example, when a season of a show is coming out, is so basic - but it works,” he said. 

Gianluca Curti, chief exec at Italy’s Minerva Pictures, said his company added that releasing strategies for content would shift rapidly in coming years. 

“The old kind of windowing is still here but over the next couple of years it won’t be, so we have to be ready for the future,” he said. 

Minerva, which is nearing its 75th anniversary and produces shows ranging from Rai Uno drama Miss Fallaci to Stephen Graham-starring film Good Boy, has shifted part of its strategy to producing for YouTube. 

Curti said Minerva is now able to fully recoup its investment on some “lower budget” films via YouTube, pointing to a new-look windowing system.  

“AVoD and free-to-air, or free VoD, always used to be the third of fourth step in the traditional way of distributing TV series and movies, but we understood that we needed to make a smart move, and so we started to finance a different type of show,” he said. 

The company has produced lower budget movies in genres like action, westerns, martial arts and horror, with the films then monetised via Minerva’s 140-plus YouTube channel network. Docs and series are also in the works, Curti continued, with a view to monetising them in the same way. 

“That’s our target now yet it was impossible to think that it would be even possible just four years ago. It has changed so fast.” 

Forlin pointed to YouTube channels from groups such as Banijay Docs, which claims 1.3m subscribers, as examples of incumbents moving onto the platform and added that data would support windowing strategies. 

“In terms of proper windowing, when you look at content you’ll all be looking at data and we give you loads - the demo, who’s watching, where they’re watching, when they’re watching, in which country and on what surface.  
 
“Over time, your windowing can be based on that and you can learn when to release shows depending on where else you have distribution.” 

Forlin pointed to sports highlights, which he said perform best 30 minutes after a match ends, arguing this kind of insight could be applied to other genres. 

The exec also said placing shows on YouTube could drive complimentary viewing without cannibalising existing audience, with Andrea David Rizzi, YouTube’s head of media & sports partnership in Italy and Portugal, highlighting the work of YouTube operator CazéTV. 

The Brazilian company picked up non-exclusive rights to the recent Olympics and the 2022 World Cup, and will also stream more than 100 matches from the upcoming 2026 World Cup. 

“They did amazing numbers and we found that the audience was complimentary to those who were watching on FTA broadcaster Globo and [sibling pay operator] SporTV.  

“These were not people who would have watched the content on those broadcasters and the reason was that [CazéTV ] didn’t just stream the games, they brought creators into the game. It’s a completely different type of narrative.”