YouTube hires former MTV executive to create original content

(Reuters) - YouTube said on Wednesday it hired former MTV executive Susanne Daniels to join its division that works toward creating original online series. Daniels will manage the YouTube Originals development pipeline and oversee production, the video-sharing website said. She will join as vice president, YouTube Originals and report to Robert Kyncl, head of content & business operations at YouTube. YouTube's competitors Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc are getting aggressive toward producing original online series and independent low-budget films as traditional media outlets suffer from dwindling audience numbers and falling advertising revenue. Earlier this year, Amazon announced its plans to produce close to 12 movies a year with budgets of between $5 million and $25 million. This was announced shortly after the e-commerce company signed director Woody Allen to create a TV series. Google Inc bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. (Reporting by Ankush Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Diane Craft)