YouTube Enters ‘Wild Kingdom’

4 May, 2009 By: Erik Gruenwedel

YouTube

A relic of television’s bygone era, Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom,” is now available on popular social video site YouTube.

Full episodes of the original 1963 series — broadcast on Animal Planet since 2002 — first narrated by late zoologist and naturalist Marlin Perkins and later Alec Baldwin, will be available for free at .

“By sharing our programs through YouTube, we’re able to introduce younger generations to the show that pioneered the nature show format that became a cultural icon in the 1960s and ‘70s,” said John Hildenbiddle, SVP of Mutual of Omaha.

YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc., last month signed feature-film streaming agreements with Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, CBS Corp., BBC and Starz, among others.