YouTube's bid to grab TV dollars imperiled by advertiser revolt

Main focus: YouTube has spent years courting big brands that spend hundreds of millions annually on air time.

The decision by a handful of high-profile consumer brands to pull advertising from Google’s YouTube over offensive content could threaten the site’s long-term strategy of stealing ad dollars from television, analysts and ad industry professionals said.

The immediate financial impact of the controversy is likely to be limited, in part because a big chunk of YouTube revenue comes from smaller advertisers who lack the budget for TV campaigns and do not have easy alternatives. Some analysts also believe that departing advertisers, eager to reach YouTube's millennial audience, will quickly return.