Google kicks off YouTube comedy week in India

Search engine giant Google is focusing on further strengthening the content pipeline of its video service YouTube to make it a 'daily habit', a company official said Thursday.

YouTube has 55 million unique visitors every month Mumbai, and 40 percent of them use the service on mobile phones.

"The way people consume content has changed dramatically. We are building a platform for the next set of subscribers. We have partnerships with various broadcasters and content providers for movies and TV shows (both new and archived). Gautam Anand, YouTube Asia Pacific director for content partnerships, told PTI Mumbai.

"We want to make YouTube a daily habit and want them (subscribers) to consume content online," he further said.

After the US and Britain, YouTube is now launching 'Comedy Week' Mumbai.

"This is a part of our marketing strategy. Starting Thursday until September 12, we will play over 400 hours of comedy content sourced from our channel Mumbai. This will include content from Bollywood, TV shows like Great Indian Laughter Challenge, MTV Bakra and Kahani Comedy Circus Ki," Anand said.

There will also be regional language comedy content in Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Gujarati and Kannada, he added.

"Comedy shows contribute to over 30 percent of the total watch hours within TV shows category. On our platform too, comedy show viewership is one of the fastest growth areas. Through this initiative, we are bringing more Indian comedy content onto YouTube," he said.

Comedy week will feature content from broadcasters and production houses like Rajshri, Eros, T-series, Shemaroo, Disney, Star, Colors and Sri Adhikari Brothers.