List of YouTube Brand Channels
{ Tags: brands, youtube \ Mar4 }It’s been 18 months since YouTube launched its Brand Channels initiative which allows brands to customise their own YouTube page with background images, additional links and eradicate the standard banner advertising of a regular YouTube page.
It’s been quite interesting to see which brands have been creating their own channels so I’ve compiled a (by no means comprehensive) list of those that have done so. Who knows, it might come in handy when you’re trying to sell it in to clients? 
I wonder what the costs are of setting a branded channel up? Nothing mentioned on YouTube’s advertising brand channel.
Each image is linked to its respective channel.
MEDIA
ABC Networks
BBC
CBS
Google
ITN
New York Times
The Sun
POLITICS
Barack Obama
CNN - YouTube Debates
Labour Party
Liberal Democrats
Conservative Party
CONSUMER
Cadbury’s Cream Egg
Diesel
Nike
Pepsi
Vauxhall
Swiffer
Victoria’s Secret
X-Factor
CHARITY
Oxfam
Unicef
World Vision
SPORT
Chelsea
Motor Cycle News
NBA
MUSIC
Warner Bros Records
ROYALTY
Her Royal Highness of the British Empire, Queen Elizabeth
Stephen is managing director of 3W PR, a UK based online PR consultancy. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
Robert French
Stephen, you continue to amaze me with your research and ability to come up with remarkable posts. Kudos! I’m not just talking about this post, either. It is the entire body of work. Really sharp!
IMHO, you’re easily the best (former student) blogger around and … quite honestly (no fluff here) one of the best PR bloggers anywhere.
Once again, I will send students on over to see and say, “Hey, see what this guy does? Try to post cool, thoughtful and engaging information like this.” You seem, to me, to always be thinking and exploring. That’s the coolest characteristic of a good blogger, to me.
Envy is a bad thing, but I’m feeling it. :o)
darika
Hey Stephen, cost are quite high for branded channels. When I worked with them last year on getting Shiny on the partner scheme (http://www.youtube.com/user/shinymedia) they mentioned about $500K USD!
They do make a distinction though between “partners” and “sponsors”. My understanding of this is that partners (such as Shiny) are invited to to become a partner channel in return for a revenue share agreement with YouTube. Partners are selected on the basis that they create high quality content, with a high number of views, and YouTube/Google can sell ads on them.
Sponsor branded channels are a different kettle of fish and I’m not sure what the ad model is on them i.e. are they allowed to serve their own ads? Or just brand the channel and disallow ads?
Stephen
Hey Robert,
Wow! Thank you for the very kind words! I’m humbled. Full kudos to you also. You’re doing some great stuff with your students and without doubt they stand in good stead once they move from the classroom to the office. Cheers!
Hey Darika,
I’d heard the branded channels cost $50k (not $500k) but wasn’t too sure so didn’t want to be called an idiot for saying so in the post. $50k or $500k they’re both too expensive in my opinion.
darika
well, between us both I think we can safely say it’s a figure with a “5″ in it!
Richard van den Boogaard
Over the past year, I have been involved in a number of YouTube branded and user channels on behalf of Rabobank (http://www.youtube.nl/rabosporttv and http://www.youtube.nl/rabostreetballtour).
The model that Google offers to advertisers is based on commitment of AdWords campaign budget. You pay a sum for a channel and get the equivalent in an AdWords account which you can use to advertise on YouTube and other sites on the Google Content Network (i.e. excluding google.com). Display ads placed via AdWords may only link back to the branded channel.
So the major difference between a partner and a branded channel is who pays and gets paid. YouTube only places ads on partner channels. (Semi-)Professional content on partner channels deploy ads from Google and earn revenue. Jeff Buckley (http://www.youtube.com/whatthebuck) makes enough to have quit his job.