Google’s Direction in Content & Video Distribution
Kevin J. Delaney of the Wall Street Journal looks into Google’s latest content deals with Viacom’s MTV Networks and Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace.com (two vicious competitors) and how this new Google Video and Advertising direction is key to the company for long term growth.
From Google Sees Content Deals As Key to Long-Term Growth :
Google’s improved relationships with media and entertainment companies reflects the confidence those companies have gained in online distribution in the past year, amid rapid growth in Americans’ consumption of Web video and other Internet content.
But just as importantly, it illustrates a coming of age in Google’s approach to the owners of content it wants to search. One key development: Google has recruited executives from the media and entertainment industries in the past year to negotiate with those companies. Led by David Eun, a Time Warner Inc. and NBC alum who joined Google in February, these teams are prowling for deals and courting potential content partners with visits to Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters.
Now “we can approach them (the media and entertainment firms) in a way that we can actually do business together and not screw things up,” said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt at a press conference Wednesday.
Making such tie-ups work is crucial to Google’s long-term advertising revenue growth, providing the company with additional places to display lucrative ads, such as alongside video clips. It’s also key to Google’s mission of letting consumers search the world’s information. For years, individuals could access billions of Web pages through Google, which the company indexed without their owners’ explicit permission. Now the company is trying to extend that search to diverse sets of commercial information, including movies and books.
This is a good, public read on Google, content, and its competition with Yahoo and others while appeasing the content and entertainment companies, from the Wall Street Journal
