March 8th, 2007
Google vs Old Media: Who needs YouTube?
Who needs YouTube? That is the $1.65 billion dollar online video question.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt confidently let it be known this week that every mainstream professional video content producer does, in very Googley take it or leave it terms.
Vicaom does not believe it needs YouTube, however, if it means Google’s terms. Philippe Dauman, CEO, Viacom:
We are very pleased to have more traffic now since we took down our content from YouTube on our own site because we are able to monetize that for our own pockets as opposed to having somebody else monetize at our expense.
Most owners of entertainment content desired by YouTubers, however, are hedging their video bets, “licensing,” certain video content to YouTube (under Google’s YouTube-centric non-standard licensing terms) while aggressively rolling out their own destination video strategies.
The end game for savvy "Old Media" video copyright holders: Who needs YouTube!
The National Basketball Association is in the online video game, big time. Its current video moves encompass a dual video strategy to gain long term proprietary competitive advantage over YouTube at NBA.com, while also maintaining a limited, controlled presence at YouTube.
(SEE NBA video highlight mixer: Fans are in control! and YouTube scores NBA deal)
The NBA already has a video history with Google, Google Video that is. The NBA-Google deal done last year, however, was not a slam dunk.
At the 2006 Consumer Electronic Store, Larry Page, Google’s Co-Founder and President, Products, touted the opening of “Google Video Store” hailing “current season NBA games available online for the first time.”
NBA Commissioner David Stern said:
Google's innovative presentation of information and content is revolutionizing the way people access media. In the increasingly competitive and rapidly changing world of entertainment, Google Video provides us with a new way to deliver the NBA experience to our fans when and how they want it.
Maybe revolutionary, but apparently not in the best interests of the NBA. Last November, the Google Video-NBA collaboration ended.
Will the new NBA Channel at YouTube be in the best interests of the NBA, although the Google Video-NBA "partnership" was not? Will the NBA succeed in making its own NBA.com Fan Voice the preferred video destination of choice for NBA fans?
Will "Old Media" hold the online video cards, rather than Google's YouTube?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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