YouTube to splash millions on its stars

YouTube is planning to spend millions of dollars on some of the platform’s biggest stars, in deals intended to create high quality content for the site, Re/code reports.

The company is focusing on “endemic” YouTube stars who already have big followings on the site.

It marks a change in tactics for YouTube. In recent years it spent more than $US100 million in a push to get video makers to create “channels” of programing, an effort which fizzled out.

In a blog post announcing the plan, the head of YouTube Originals, Alex Carloss, says the time is right to make another investment in the site’s creative talent.

“That’s why we’ve decided to fund new content from some of our top creators, helping them not only fulfil their creative ambitions but also deliver new material to their millions of fans on YouTube,” said Carloss.

“As any creator will tell you, making compelling new content isn’t easy, and we expect to learn a lot through this process. We’ll experiment with new formats and ideas. We’ll get our hands dirty. We’ll make some mistakes.”

“Together, we’ll (hopefully) create some fantastic new content on YouTube. But one thing is certain: there’s no one we’d rather go on this adventure with than our creators.”