Demand Media debuted the latest of its new eHow YouTube channels today, eHow Pets. It’s the third of the company’s new channels created as part of Google’s new YouTube original programming initiative. The others are eHow Home and Livestrong Woman.
“Demand Media creates high-quality content that entertains and inspires users across the web. We’ve been programming content specifically for the YouTube platform since 2007 and have grown our audience to nearly 7 million users per month, with more than 3.6 billion views,” says Demand Media EVP, Media & Marketplace, Michael Blend. “We believe YouTube’s movement towards original production and content aligns well with our mission to deliver what consumers want, and we’re pleased to be one of the leaders on this path.”
Programming for the new channel includes shows called: Heavy Petting, Teacher’s Pet, American Dog, Smudge & Squeak (Defenders of the Flock) and Farm Raised. Hosts include: Mike Weaver, Victoria Stillwell and P. Allen Smith.
Stilwell has hosted Animal Planet’s “It’s Me or The Dog”. Smith hosts two public television programs, and Weaver is a comedian. Demand Media says each of them works as a partner with Demand Media from the conception of new ideas to socializing content with fans (engaging them and gathering feedback).
“YouTube is expanding our channels to bring an even broader range of entertainment to consumers. Demand Media has been a long-time partner in identifying and creating programming consumers want to see and that keeps them coming back again and again,” says Robert Kyncl, Global Head of Content Partnerships at YouTube. “For advertisers, these channels represent a new way to engage and reach their global consumers.”
We’ve followed Demand Media pretty closely since the pre-Google Panda update days. The company, and its eHow property in particular have been focal points throughout the Panda saga, a time period which also happened to coincide with Demand Media’s IPO.
Daniel Frankel at PaidContent makes a pretty good point in that the company has made quite a turn around, particularly in its relationship with Google. Now, Google and Demand Media were already partners before the Panda update, and when the update didn’t immediately impact eHow, there were certainly suspicions that they were getting some kind of special treatment, given that eHow appeared to be the poster child for the type of site Google claimed to be targeting with the Panda update. Eventually, however, Panda did strike at Demand and eHow, and the company initiated a major shift in strategy.
During its last earnings call, Demand Media indicated that eHow had not been impacted by a Google algorithm change since July. The company will report its Q1 earnings on May 8. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say about it then (it usually comes up in their earnings calls).
eHow Pets should do well. We all know how popular animal videos are on YouTube.