Less than a year ago, YouTube announced an aggressive plan to start making money by distributing paid content (as reported here on Senses). That hasn’t quite happened yet, though they have spent the last year starting to experiment with a number of money-making tactics, like pre-roll ads, and working with Vevo, the music industry’s video site.

But now it seems the eCommerce portion of YouTube’s plan to actually make money is finally close to fruition. Google, which owns YouTube, is in talks with TV networks and studios to begin streaming full episodes of TV shows. And, just like iTunes, they plan to charge users for the shows.

Reportedly, YouTube wants to charge $1.99 per episode. It’s much the same business model as that used by both iTunes and Amazon. Though there is a difference. The competitors offer episodes as downloads, while YouTube will only be providing streaming access to the shows.

According to YouTube, they’re confident they’ll be able to arrange some kind of deal amenable to themselves, the TV networks and studios, and end users. YouTube, it would seem, is banking on their strong brand, incredibly high traffic, and the fact that people already come to the site, in droves, in order to watch videos. Whether that’s enough to convince consumers to pay a similar premium for streamed content, versus downloadable media, remains to be seen.

With the recent advent of Youtube Direct, citizen journalism just became easier, and a little more legitimate.   Before, users had to submit their news stories to media outlets via more traditional means, such as by mail or god forbid, email.  With more and more people though shooting and uploading videos, the media had to find some way to keep up with the racing pace of technology.  Enter in Youtube Direct – with its easy interface and massive built-in audience, Youtube has now provided news outlets with a ready source for citizen news stories.  Users may now embed Youtube’s video upload functionality directly into their own site.  Using Youtube’s API, sites  are customizable, and editors have the built-in capability to accept or reject submissions.  It’s a handy and exciting new tool in the progression of social media, that taps into the potential of social media, while also providing a mechanism for the content regulation and verification that is a current criticism of online media.  It’s a great idea that all outlets should grab a hold onto as people move away from their television screens and to their computer monitors.

However, Youtube Direct isn’t just for news agencies, it can also be utilized for businesses, non-profits, politicians, or just about anyone who wishes to connect with a target audience.  Businesses could feature content that reviews or favours their products, or post up promotional campaigns; non-profits could use it to spread awareness about their work and goals; and politicians could utilize it to connect with voters.

For more on the impact of how Youtube is impacting the world of citizen journalism, check out this interview with Olivia Ma, Youtube’s manager of News & Politics:

Olivia Ma on YouTube as a news channel from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

If you happen to have dropped by YouTube today, you might have noticed a little addendum to the logo, up in the top left of the page. It reads: “1 billion views per day”. And then there’s an exclamation point, and really, why wouldn’t there be? That’s a crazy number.

In fact, it’s a number that’s a lot more incredible than it might seem at first glance. The news about YouTube’s latest, greatest milestone was first announced this morning on their biz blog, in a post by CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley. It was three years ago today that Google acquired the unquestioned Grand Poobah of online video, and that fact is the focus of Hurley’s post. But he also mentions, almost in passing, that YouTube now serves up more than one-billion-views-per-day.

It’s an apples-vs-oranges thing to compare traditional media to online, but just for fun, let’s take a look at that number in comparison to the big Kahuna of network television…the Superbowl. In the average year, approximately 100 million people worldwide watch the championship football game (that’s according to Wikipedia).  And that’s almost always the biggest show broadcast on American TV for the year.

It’s pretty incredible that YouTube now attracts 10x the viewership of the Superbowl, every single day. Granted, YouTube has a lot more international appeal. And most of those 1 billion videos served on YouTube every day are a whole lot shorter than the 3.5 hours or so the game takes. But it’s kind of mind-blowing that we can even compare (however unscientifically) the viewership numbers of an online video site with the biggest annual TV spectacular on US network TV.

If you’ve got a videocamera and a woozy kid on the way home from the dentist, you can now make a lot of cash. Last week YouTube announced a massive expansion of their revenue-sharing Partner Program. With it, YouTube will seek out the most popular videos on the site and then invite the uploaders to join in the fun. YouTube will attach a variety of advertising to the video and then give the uploader a big cut of the revenue.

The program has actually already been in place for a couple years, but with this new announcement they’ll be looking to increase the number of partners by 10x or even more.

Where previously the vast majority of partners were multiple uploaders, the new program will include lots more one-hit wonders. Videos like the aforementioned David After Dentist, which has 28 million views and counting, should start bringing in a whole lot of cake. And with YouTube’s promise to add tens of thousands of videos to the Partner Program, hit video makers should stand a good chance of getting in on the action.

In the last week or two, Google has engaged in a running argument with various pundits and industry insiders about how much money YouTube makes, and will make in the future. The main issue is this: Google bought YouTube for $1.7 billion dollars; and as of yet, YouTube is not profitable. Mark Cuban, mouthy owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and internet billionaire, has been one of the most outspoken critics, once stating: “Only a moron would buy YouTube”.

All the back-and-forth seems to have prompted a post on the Google biz blog: “YouTube myth busting”. The post debunks five of the myths/facts that are frequently trotted out by anyone arguing that the purchase of YouTube was a big, fat waste of money. To me, the most interesting myth/debunking was this one: “Myth 4: Advertisers are afraid of YouTube.” The debunking states that: “Over 70% of Ad Age top 100 marketers ran campaigns on YouTube in 2008.” What’s fascinating about that it’s just another sign that, as far as advertising and marketing go, everything, absolutely everything, is about to change.

When you look at the crazy valuation of successful social networks and social media sharing sites, it’s clear that the business world is preparing themselves for this change. Just as traditional advertising, in newspapers and on TV, for example, is rapidly losing its ability to reach consumers, the tidal wave of new opportunities represented by social networks is coming fast. None of this is new, of course, but its interesting watching as every day seems to bring more and more clear signs that the future of advertising is almost upon us…and it looks like a sponsored video on YouTube, or a branded, corporate Twitter page, or an e-commerce store on Facebook. None of those new realities are happening in any big way, none of them are really making huge profits yet, but it’s only a matter of time. And, from the look of things, not all that much time.

Okay, maybe that headline’s a bit melodramatic, but a soon-to-be-released redesign of YouTube is a pretty clear indication they view UGC as something of a necessary evil. According to a bushel of articles in the last couple days, we’re only weeks away from a complete overhaul of YouTube that will divide the site into “premium content” in sections called “Movies”, “Music” and “Shows”, while relegating their bread-and-butter user submissions into a last, lonely tab called “Videos”.

And why are they doing it? Moolah, of course. YouTube’s owner, Google, wants to do a better job monetizing their content so they can start earning back some of that $1.65 billion they spent to buy the site in the first place. Advertisers and sponsors fear UGC, because it often proudly features stuff that breaks both copyrights and taboos. Most large (and rich) companies don’t want their name associated with a video of some guy singing “Dust in the Wind” while dressed in a David Hasselhoffian Speedo. But advertisers will be happy to pay YouTube for eyeballs, if those eyeballs are watching the right stuff. In fact, they’re reportedly close to signing a deal with Disney to feature content and advertising in the premium sections of the new site.

The funny thing is, Disney is also close to signing an even bigger deal with one of YouTube’s biggest competitors – Hulu. Which may explain why the new YouTube redesign supposedly bears an eerie resemblance to Hulu’s existing site. I guess all’s fair in love, war and when trying to hop in the sack with Mickey Mouse.