MUMBAI: YouTube has acquired web video production company Next New Networks. for an undisclosed amount, a move that will help strengthen its original content as it faces increasing competition from rivals such as Hulu and Netflix.

The Google-owned video-sharing website said that the newly bought production team will be on the forefront of testing new YouTube technologies and will also act as an incubator for upcoming video talent. 
 
"Within YouTube, Next New Networks will be a laboratory for experimentation and innovation with the team working in a hands on way with a wide variety of content partners and emerging talent to help them succeed on YouTube,", YouTube‘s director of Global Content Operations Tom Pickett wrote on a company blog. "We are thrilled with the new capability the team brings and the positive impact it will have making our YouTube partners more successful." 
 
Along with the news of the acquisition, Pickett also outlined the company‘s new YouTube Next programme that he described as "a new team tasked with super-charging creator development and accelerating partner growth and success." Those efforts, Pickett said, included outreach programmes like meet-ups and community events alongside training and education programmes.

"Next New Networks will be a laboratory for experimentation and innovation with the team working in a hands-on way with a wide variety of content partners and emerging talent to help them succeed on YouTube. At YouTube, we‘re focused on building a great technology platform for creators, and so we leave the actual creation of great videos to the people who do it best: our partners," Pickett said.