YouTube racks up over 19,000 episodes of Indian television shows, all available for free on the site. Which begs the question, if Indian media companies can offer content for free on YouTube, why not media companies from the rest of the world?
YouTube India
YouTube has announced its local Indian offerings has grown to encompass more than 19,000 separate episodes of more than 300 different shows. And the YouTube Shows page for those in India has been updated to make sorting this content easier.
Six different India-based languages are now supported on YouTube – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, and Punjabi – with content available in all. Broadcasters supplying the content include Sony Entertainment Television (SET), Colors, ImagineTV, Star India, and VikatanTV.
Those living outside India can still access this content by visiting youtube.com/shows/other-languages. This link also opens up possibilities for watching content in a range of languages foreign from your own.
India Embraces Change
This news will, of course, be mainly of interest to India-based YouTube users and those who speak the six local languages but live outside of India. However, there is a reason the wider world should take note of this development.
Indian media companies appear to have embraced the idea of offering their shows for free on YouTube like no one else has. Sure, all countries have some free local content to watch in this way, but nowhere near as much as 19,000 episodes of mainstream TV content.
India is leading the way on this occasion. While the rest of the world keeps experimenting with the idea of making people pay to watch online, Indian television companies are embracing the advertising model offered by YouTube.
Conclusions
is positioning itself as a big player in the revolution we’re merely at the start of. Forget your amateur footage of cats acting the fool, this is professional content being offered for free on a global scale.
