YouTube is moving away from being the bane of copyright owners' lives by forming agreements with them instead.

Hot on the heels of a partnership with MGM to feature full-length films on the site, the company now has an agreement with FreemantleMedia to show its programmes, such as The X Factor, as well as YouTube-exclusive content.

According to Chris Albrecht from CNN Money, Google-owned YouTube and Freemantle will share revenue created from the videos.

He said: "This deal continues YouTube's push into the premium content space as the company tries to monetise its massive audience."

In the past, according to Mr Albrecht, advertisers have shied away from buying spots next to the "amateurish and sometimes offensive" user-generated content (UGC) that YouTube is famous for.

He continued: "The question now is, as YouTube acquires more and more premium content, will audiences be able to navigate the thicket of UGC dreck to find the high-quality stuff (and see the ads that accompany it)?"

Moving quickly away from the question of whether The X Factor can be deemed in any way high quality, will Google finally be able to "monetise" YouTube as a result of the deals?

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