What to look for in Hosting service?

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions regarding the features of the hosting service that is needed
for a large website that will include extensive international database and music file transfers. Not to sound arrogant ( I admit my ignorance on the subject) what would be an appropriate hosting service for
a website as extensive as YouTube?
Although it may not be a subject for this place, where would you look for the appropriate webmasters
running such a websites?

Many thanks in advance!

Bohemus

Social networking sites such as Youtube-flickr are data intensive and needs fast and reliable server capable of handling heavy traffic so the hosting servers needs to be the best with powerful CPU (dual-quad processor )and huge diskspace along with vast bandwidth.
Dedicated severs are the best option for such sites.

Thanks! Since you are based in UK, any suggestion for the company in UK or France?

for unknown future expansion. i would recommend you find hosting that offering shared hosting with high bandwidth, and easy upgrade in future. TO VPS, or to dedicated in future.

Hostgator offering easy upgrade, support team will do it for you.

startlogic offering vps and dedicated as well.
juse better pricing than hostgator

Honestly I really like GoDaddy.com. They might get a lot of $hit from reviewers because of their marketing, but they really are good considering their size. I have used NameSecure & Register.com in the past, but I am really happy w/ the knowledge & support I get from GoDaddy.

Thanks to All!