Google is putting $500,000 where its mouth is, giving YouTube content partners early Christmas presents to enable them to buy new video equipment. The company is offering 500 of its favorite content providers $1000 each in credit to B&H Photo – the favorite camera equipment store of Google co-founder Sergey Brin – as a thank you for generating “billions of video views in 2010,” according to a post on the official YouTube blog:
We hope this will provide our most popular partners with the tools they need — whether it be a new camera, sound & lighting equipment or editing software — to produce even higher quality videos and ultimately drive bigger audiences to their work. Hundreds of creative people all around the world have launched professional careers after using YouTube as a global platform to demonstrate their talent – we want to see this number continue to grow.
With YouTube looking to become more of a destination for original content – in part to push the troubled Google TV – this kind of outreach is a smart way of convincing filmmakers to partner with the site. Tis the season to be crafty, after all.
More On Techland:
Is YouTube Trying to Buy Up Popular Online TV Networks?
YouTube Offers Free TVs To Get People Excited About Google TV