As if Netflix, Amazon, and Yahoo Screen weren’t enough, television will now have to face the heat from YouTube. And that too at its last bastion, sports. The biggest sporting event in the US actually.
YouTube is producing its own halftime Super Bowl show featuring some of its biggest stars. Harley Morenstein, the ringleader of food stunt group EpicMealTime, will host the program featuring musical performances and stunts, while others will produce fake Super Bowl ads. The show will stream live on YouTube during the game, the year’s most-watched television event, airing Feb. 1 on Comcast Corp.’s NBC.
YouTube says the growing profile of online stars like Freddie Wong, whose main channel has more than 7.4 million subscribers, and Toby Turner will help them vie for attention with Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz, NBC’s halftime performers. More than 60 million people subscribe to the channels of the participating YouTube creators, some of whom YouTube has been promoting on billboards in major U.S. cities.
The show will be produced by YouTube in conjunction with Collective Digital Studio, a Los Angeles online video network at YouTube’s Los Angeles studio YouTube Space LA. YouTube will also bring back AdBlitz, the service’s specialized channel allowing viewers to vote on their favorite regular Super Bowl ads, for the seventh time. Last year, 6.3 million hours were spent on YouTube watching Super Bowl ads.
