Yahoo goes Current with Vlogging

So you think you think you can vlog, huh? Newcomers like PodTech and Rocketboom now have a bully in their sandbox, with Yahoo aping online video shows in a new partnership with Current TV launched Tuesday night.

Yahoo Current certainly has access to star power, with a first-day clip featuring Bono behind the camera filming bandmate the Edge get out of bed, do yoga, and assault paparazzi. And a daily “Yahoo Current Buzz” show about “what’s hot in the world and around Yahoo” will be produced by Madeleine Smithburg, a co-creator of the Daily Show.


The style – which Current exec Joanna Drake Earl called “humorous, passionate, and whimsical” in an interview Tuesday – is very similar to a vlog, or perhaps MTV News, with marginally better effects but still a DIY quality.

When we first heard about the announcement, we thought this was a cool application of video-sharing tools – like embeddable links and comments – to in-house professional video content. But after watching the videos themselves, this seems to be more of the pro-am stuff we are all used to.

Yahoo and Current are also partnering on three channels of mostly user-generated content devoted to action sports, car enthusiasts, and traveling (which aren’t bad advertising verticals, but that’s another story). When user-contributed video for each of the categories is featured online, creators will earn $100. If it is featured on Current’s TV channel, they earn $500.

Current prides itself on incorporating user-generated content (about 30 percent of its programming), but it’s limited in its availability to the 30 million U.S. households who subscribe to its cable and satellite partners (mainly Comcast and DirecTV).

So what need does this serve? It’s not like anyone’s lacking a place to post their online video. Still, having a direct, free link to its viewers may make Current more relevant…and perhaps more buzzworthy. Yahoo already has the biggest audience for an online video site, with 21.1 million visitors in July, according to comScore. And dividing content into channels has definitely worked for Yahoo in the past.

The New York Times notes that this is the first time Yahoo will place commercials (15- to 30-second pre-roll ads) next to user-generated videos. We’re sure a lot of people would give their eye teeth for the analytics on that!

Comments have been disabled for this post