Bloomberg is running an article which quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s stance on media companies and their reluctance to upload content on YouTube, despite its popularity and demand by YouTube users to view copyrighted content.
“Eventually all of the copyrighted content will be available on virtually all of the sites,” said Schmidt, who is tussling over copyrights with Viacom Inc. “The growth of YouTube, the growth of online, is so fundamental that these companies are going to be forced to work with and in the Internet,” Schmidt said in an interview at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
YouTube is essentially blossoming into the new preferential media in the same manner the Nixon-Kennedy debate put television on the map in 1960 and cable rocked the telecommunications world in the ’80′s.
If media companies do not see that now and ignore it’s popularity, will it hurt them in the long run and will they lose a generation of viewers?
Or will demand to view segments of the Daily Show or Yo’ Mama lead to an even stronger online video site in Joost.com?
The success of YouTube has networks divided on whether the benefits of putting up clips outweigh the risk of cannibalizing their own efforts. CBS Corp. this week called YouTube a “huge promotional vehicle.” Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said unauthorized videos on the site hurt his company.
Read the full overview at Bloomberg : Google’s Schmidt Says Media Companies Need YouTube
You can’t blame the major TV networks for hating YouTube, but the real problem is the cost of making quality TV is rising faster the ad revenue to pay for it.
Motion picture companies feared the in home TV would destroy their lucrative movie theatre business, but this did not happen. Viacom will soon see that that this new delivery method will be the same positive paradigm shift.
I think it’s an interesting paradox. Television companies need increased revenue to support their high end television shows, so they increase ads, which ultimately drives more viewers away…
How long do you think it will be before the first high quality, big budget television show hits the world wide web as an exclusive? I bet it won’t be long…