The good thing about celebrity news is that you can repackage it for different markets – and ITN is going to give this a try withGerman showbiz channel Promi411on YouTube.
"The launch of our German showbiz channel is a fantastic example of ITN adapting an already successful product on YouTube for a new territory," says Mark Browning, the ITN commercial director. "We have the capability to create, localise and tailor our content to work in any market and on any platform."
Although the project is promising, a bit more finetuning may be necessary.
Unsurprisingly footage from the London premiere of the Blur documentary No Distance Left to Run is being outperformed by a story about German model Heidi Klum unveiling her waxwork model at Madame Taussaud's in Berlin, which was watched 10,000 times. However, musical actor Lee Mead's return to the West End was viewed just 337 times – so the German voiceover may have been a waste of money.
At the moment, the service features mainly celebrity news from London, but there are plans to reach out around the globe. In the end, ITN's first foreign language product will show how international stars really are.
At the moment, ITN has six permanent channels on YouTube which cover news, showbiz, music, books, video gaming and fun content. All six channels combined attract an average of 25 million views a month. It will be interesting to see if the celebrities news in German adds many more.
