British Broadcaster ITV Invests In Channel Mum YouTube Network

ITV has its eyes on web video, and with its latest investment, it has joined forces with a network aimed at young mothers. The British broadcaster has picked up a minority stake in Channel Mum, a UK-based company that features insights from videomaking moms.

Channel Mum, which first launched at the beginning of 2015, is run by parenting website Netmums and features an online home for the native Internet users who are now having kids of their own.  “YouTube is growing up, and the millennials are growing up too,” Channel Mum founder Siobhan Freegard told The Guardian at the time of her network’s launch. “There are a huge number of new mums in this category, and at least the middle and younger of them are the YouTube generation, while the older ones are coming to it.”

ITV’s investment will assist Channel Mum’s growth, which has recently included a number of brand partnerships. It has teamed up with Panasonic for a program that helped one hundred mothers become vloggers and has a deal with Pampers as well. “Siobhan Freegard is a hugely successful entrepreneur with a proven track record in digital business,” said ITV managing director of online, pay and interactive Simon Pitts. “She and her team at Channel Mum have a brilliant understanding of content, advertisers and mothers, and how they can work together to produce genuinely appealing, authentic content.”

ITV’s other digital ventures include its own multi-channel network on YouTube (where many of the videos relate to its TV programs) and an investment in “multi-company network” Zealot Networks.