YouTube's 'Watch page for News' sparks optimism and scepticism

During 'Google for India 2023', the annual event, stakeholders from diverse industries eagerly awaited the tech giant's latest innovations.

Among the announcements, Google introduced an "immersive watch page experience for news stories" on YouTube. This feature, YouTube's Watch Page for News, is accessible only on mobile devices, is being hailed as a groundbreaking development for the digital publishing sector.

The new feature is designed to enhance the news-watching experience for users. When users open a video with a newspaper icon, a new YouTube watch page will appear, suggesting more news content from a “range of credible and diverse voices”.

This updated layout will highlight relevant long-form videos, live streams, podcasts, and Shorts beneath the currently playing content. The feature, which has been rolled out in 40 countries including India, can be accessed by users for specific news topics by clicking on a video with the newspaper icon on the homepage or in search results.

Now, digital news publishers in India active on YouTube can be broadly classified into three main categories. The first comprises traditional video news channels, the second includes businesses native to the digital video publishing realm, and the third consists of traditionally text-based news outlets exploring digital video platforms. Assessing the potential impact of this new move on businesses, the effects can vary across different categories.

Sharing his take, Pranav Bakshi, head - digital video strategy and partnerships, Network18, believes YouTube's News Watch Page to be a positive movement to showcase news from credible publishers under one watch page, rather than users discovering it between multiple different content types. 

“As a leading credible content publisher, we see the opportunity of putting subject or event-specific content in multiple formats and not competing with unverified content. We can also see a rise in time spent by users, as the news user would like to view the content longer and in more detail,” he asserts.

With multiple different formats like VOD’s, Live, shorts, podcasts  and content types like explainers, it could have been confusing for a user to search for the right and relevant content, he shares. Now, with this page, users can now easily find the news on the basis of recency and interface with a better UI experience.

He also opines that YouTube's News Watch Page will enhance the accessibility of news content to diverse audiences as news viewers on the platform get a consolidated view of a story or an event in one go. “This would be a great experience as a user would also get more relevance and detail to the news at hand and not get lost in a thumb swipe.”

Interestingly, while announcing the feature, Mira Chatt, head of government affairs and public policy, YouTube India, said "I am thrilled to introduce 'Watch Page' for news. The Watch Page will recommend videos available from credible sources.” However, there is no clarity on what the platform deems as credible news sources. 

“It’s all about the credibility of a news organisation against the videos which are published with no verification. This would add a more relevant userbase to the genre and build up interest. During news days and events, you could just see a spike in users on a page rather than a search spike alone. With the rise in video consumption across & this would set out a clear distribution for credible news,” Bakshi comments. 

Commenting on the categorisation of credible news sources, Abhinandan Sekhri, co-founder and CEO, Newslaundry, says, “I disagree on the characterisation of the news sources platformed on this page as 'credible'. I have seen the page and many of them have in the past aired news that has been inaccurate, to put it mildly, and many of them indulge in hateful rhetoric. So I see this development only as easier accessibility to the news consumer. I don’t think it does anything to deal with accuracy, quality and credibility of news.”

Sharing his take on what impact it can have on business for digital native publishers like Newslaundry, Sekhri opines, assumes that the impact will depend on the content that is prioritised and placed higher up on the page. "I don’t see much change as it stands now. The legacy players with more content and resources will have a larger representation here," he says.

The same sentiment was echoed by a digital business head of a prominent daily. Speaking anonymously, he highlights that while the move is a monumental shift in the digital sector, the benefits from it will be disproportionate.

"Noting this to be a game changer is fair. However, the ones to benefit from it the most would be video news publishers, who essentially repurpose their news content for YouTube. This leads to a higher volume of videos comparatively and thus optimises them to benefit from an increased viewership comparatively.”

Further, he also notes that content creators, with small teams and a dedicated band of followers, have also been able to decode efficient ways to create content which is fairly consistent and with an optimised cost structure. Thus, independent creators will also benefit from this move. 

However, he foresees that challenges for textual-first companies will still persist. These publishers traditionally face hurdles in transitioning text-based content to high-quality videos due to the substantial costs involved. He highlights that there is a mismatch between the cost of video production and the revenue generated through ads for them. "Time will tell if the ad revenue can compensate for the significant investment required," he noted.

Bakshi believes that advertisers’ interest would definitely be higher in curated content now as it has been on specific news publishers. “With Elections around the corner, this would be a great space to build, advertise and try new ad formats.”

Why is Google doing this?

What distinguishes Google's renewed emphasis on news in the digital realm is the gradual shift away from news by its competitors, Meta and X. Despite this, a significant portion of digital users prefer to access news online.

Consequently, many news publishers are actively building audiences on their respective digital platforms. Dr. Kushal Sanghvi, head - India and SEA at CitrusAd, views YouTube's focus on news as a strategic move. He believes that YouTube and digital news platforms can mutually benefit, leading to increased viewership for both.

Decoding Google's motivations behind this strategic shift, he explains, "There's a significant global competition between Google and Facebook. If we observe the tech industry giants, Google and Facebook have been earning less than Amazon in the last 1-1.5 years. They are actively seeking higher revenues through advertising. Considering Facebook's decision to step back from the news genre, Google's move appears exceptionally intelligent. This will propel news as a genre into the limelight for numerous advertisers on Google. Advertisers strategically investing in news content will find more opportunities. Consequently, both the platform and the publishers can anticipate substantial growth in advertising revenues in the foreseeable future."