So, Channel Four is to monetize its content on YouTube and Bebo by running pre-roll ads on their programme clips. This is interesting stuff. In a month when UK broadcasters have had to stomach some big doses of bad news, here is some light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a mutual raison d’etre here. Social media giants like YouTube have to find ways of monetising their content before investors start to lose patience and broadcasters like Channel Four need to find ways of monetizing their content before they fall even deeper into financial trouble.

The digital age is an age of partnerships where one time enemies can, and sometimes must, become friends. To succeed companies need to see old competitors as new companions. Rather than scrapping over content ownership and rights (another social media story today), it looks like Channel Four and YouTube are trying to make it work in the brave new world. Of course, this move won’t solve all Channel Four’s strategic and financial problems but it is the kind of creative thinking that’s going to be required to get broadcasters and social media platforms through these troubled times

On a separate but not unrelated point, it’s interesting to note that today ITV has announced it is parting company with its head of online revenue. Sometimes what these guys do behind the scenes is as interesting as the programmes they transmit.