YouTube Reaches Deal To Post Digital Music Group's Classic TV Content

In a victory for free online video site YouTube, Google has reached a revenue sharing deal with Digital Music Group in which it will post full versions of classic TV shows owned by Digital Music Group without paying anything up front. The two companies will split ad revenues generated by the video clips, in an undisclosed arrangement. Shows to be aired include Gumby (pictured) and I Spy. According to Tuhin Roy, chief strategy officer for Digital Music Group, "This is the step that needs to happen for YouTube to start monetizing its audience." In a break from standard practice on the site, viewers will be required to watch an ad before viewing free Digital Music Group content. Last week Viacom required YouTube to remove all clips featuring its content since a proper revenue sharing deal could not be reached. In unrelated news, Vodafone's U.K. customers will be able to view YouTube clips updated daily on their handsets.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Cnet, MarketWatch, ZDNet
Commentary: Google Forced To Remove 100,000 Viacom Clips From YouTube, Google Releases YouTube Buyout Data, Google and Viacom: A Tale of Two Universes (and Stocks)
Stocks/ETFs to watch: Google (GOOG), Digital Music Group, Inc. (DMGI), Vodafone (VOD). Competitors: Viacom (VIA), Gofish Corporation (GOFH.OB). ETFs: First Tr DJ Internet Index Fd (FDN)

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Comments

[Sufiy:]

Hi, there is some other news as well:
"NEW YORK, Feb 12 (Reuters) - A group of major media companies has accused Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile , Research) of benefiting from the sale of pirated movies and providing business support to two Web sites suspected of offering access to illegal film downloads, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday."
What is most interesting here is the list of companies alleging Google of Evil doing:
"The media companies, which the paper said include News Corp. , Viacom Inc. , Sony Corp., General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co. , allege that Google deliberately directed traffic to Web sites that were engaged in fostering piracy, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter."
This is serious, as predicted here Content providers will not just sit and watch how their money are stolen with the speed of light in the bandwidth. Just one week ago on Bloomberg Disney CEO has put: we need to draw a line where the marketing becomes something different when actually we must be paid for(phrasing is mine S.). Authors writing books will prevail, not catalogs or even best searching engines in the libraries, all IP industries are threatened by Google approach and it is ridicules to think that it will be sustained in the long term or you can base your business model on it. Google is fighting on too many fronts right now and its core consumer product is deteriorating: any search engine which will be able to bring you really precious relevant results without ad spam will send Google into oblivion. Just look what happen to the web thanks to paid search now, how many percent of it is just parking sites full of ad spam without any original information. Do not go further then my Yahoo! back link counter on this blog: 30% of links are just parking sites with Key Words.
sufiy.blogspot.com/200...

Regards,

sufiy.

2007 Feb 12 07:02 AM