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Author Topic:   YouTube and Viral Video
indiedan
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posted February 12, 2007 01:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
MTV videos to be available to all Internet users
Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:42 PM ET

By Kenneth Li

NEW YORK (Reuters) - You won't find clips of comedian Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" and MTV's "Pimp My Ride" on YouTube any more, but Viacom Inc. is laying the groundwork for its videos to be available to hundreds of thousands of other sites.

In the next few months, Web users will be able to grab videos from nearly all MTV-owned sites and post them on their own blogs or Web sites, lessening the need to go to YouTube (http://www.youtube.com), the top online video service that Google Inc. acquired last year.

Viacom, owner of MTV Networks and the Paramount movie studio, had been planning for this move months before it demanded earlier this month that YouTube remove more than 100,000 unauthorized Viacom video clips from its site, after failing to reach a distribution deal.

"We need to open up our Web sites and content both for consumers and for other companies," Mika Salmi, MTV Networks president of global digital media, said in an interview last Friday.

The move is part of a strategy to bring Viacom's Web sites up to "Web 2.0" standards, Salmi said. "Part of that is allowing people to take our content and embed it and make your own things out of it, whatever they want," he said.

MTV, once the arbiter of cool for hip young viewers, is now playing catch-up to online social networks like News Corp.'s MySpace. MTV had tried to buy MySpace, but lost out to Rupert Murdoch, leading to the ouster of Viacom's chief executive.

STAYING RELEVANT

Viacom has not ruled out a deal with YouTube yet, while analysts say the dust-up is mere negotiating tactic. But Viacom also sees staying relevant to a new generation of media consumers as a top priority. To do so, they are borrowing ideas from the very companies they compete against.

Since December, Viacom's Comedy Central Web site has been allowing viewers to embed its videos on their own sites. Other Viacom brands, such as iFilm and AddictingGames, have offered this feature even longer.

The idea, borrowed from sites like YouTube and MySpace, helps Viacom rely less on sites like YouTube by reaching viewers wherever they migrate, even if it is a friend's blog page.

At the same time, the company can control its own programing and advertising.

"Viral consumer-promoted video is a powerful thing to (Viacom)," Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said. "An embedding move means they get it -- they're not playing ostrich."

Connecting MTV Network's global network of more than 150 Web sites has been time consuming, but executives see linking the myriad technological platforms as a key to its future.

"The biggest concern is I want consumers to find our stuff," Salmi said.

Reaching viewers everywhere they go has been a key tenet of new business models on the Internet. Even as companies explore their own strategies, several big media companies, including Viacom and News Corp., have discussed forming a rival to YouTube, sources said earlier.

Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman said in November that the company had a "good chance" to generate $500 million in sales from its digital properties in 2007.

The company plans to invest more heavily in new networks and digital properties. MTV Networks said it would cut about 250 U.S. jobs to reduce costs and invest in its "television and digital future," according to an internal memo at the division.

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indiedan
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posted February 12, 2007 01:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
4,000 Entire TV Episodes To Go on YouTube


Some 4,000 hours of complete "classic" video shows will become available for viewing on YouTube following a deal between the Google-owned video website and Digital Music Group (DMG), an online video and audio distributor, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Monday). Previously, YouTube only allowed short clips from television programs to be posted on its website. It will also display ads on the "watch" pages for the videos, a departure from previous policy.

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NEWSFLASH
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posted February 13, 2007 04:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Veoh: "For YouTube Graduates"


Veoh, the video website backed by former Disney chief Michael Eisner, is set to make its official debut today (Tuesday) featuring some 100,000 videos uploaded by both amateurs and professionals. They'll be paid for their videos based on the number of people who view them. In an interview with today's Los Angeles Times, Veoh CEO Dmitry Shapiro said, "If you really want to broadcast, if you want to be a producer of video, Veoh is the place you need. It's for YouTube graduates."

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posted February 20, 2007 01:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Viacom Taketh, Now Giveth


Viacom, which ordered that all of the clips from its cable networks be pulled off YouTube two weeks ago, will allow them to return to a new video website, Joost, the Wall Street Journal reported today, saying that the deal is likely to be announced today (Tuesday). Under it, Viacom has agreed to license hundreds of hours of programming from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, Spike, and its other cable networks as well as movies made by Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures. Monetary terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the WSJ observed that in the past Viacom has received two-thirds of the advertising revenue and other compensation for such content. In an interview with the newspaper, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman indicated that the deal is non-exclusive and is meant to assure any other "potential partners that we're open for business and that we're able to enter into transactions with companies that respect our content and the considerations of our business."

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posted February 26, 2007 12:14 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
YouTube Unhurt By Viacom's Monkey Wrench


Viacom's decision to yank 100,000 clips from its cable TV shows from YouTube has apparently had no effect on the video website whatsoever. In fact, according to research from Hitwise, YouTube traffic has soared 14 percent since the beginning of the month when Viacom demanded that the clips be removed. Moreover, according to the study, the number of people accessing YouTube exceeded the number accessing all of the television network websites combined, excluding the separate sites for individual programs like American Idol.

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fred
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posted February 27, 2007 10:13 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hostile YouTube breakup a hoax
Valentine’s Day ‘split’ witnessed by thousands, later made it to Internet
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:11 a.m. PT Feb 27, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Valentine’s Day breakup of two North Carolina college students that featured singers, hundreds of spectators and a profanity-laced tirade was a hoax after all.

Ryan Burke confessed Monday that the confrontation, which became an instant hit on YouTube.com, was all a stunt to show the power of Internet communities and the amount of money that companies make from them. The pair weren’t even dating.

The fake breakup garnered plenty of attention, including more than 747,000 hits on YouTube, where users post video online, and local and national media coverage.

“The fact that actual news agencies are interested was a surprise,” Burke told The Charlotte Observer. “We did think it would get some media attention but not from those outlets (like newspapers).”

Last week, Burke, 22, claimed he and Mindy Moorman had been dating for four months but that he broke up with her because of alleged infidelity. He attracted a crowd by promoting the event on the social networking Web site facebook.com., and hundreds of students and several photographers were among the spectators at a popular gathering spot on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus.

When Moorman, 21, arrived, an a cappella group sang the Dixie Chicks hit “I’m not Ready to Make Nice.”

When Burke dumped her, Moorman’s response was an angry rant filled with expletives.

Moorman, a sophomore at North Carolina State University in nearby Raleigh, said she didn’t expect such a big reaction. “No, never, never, ever,” she said.

Moorman’s only regret: She cursed too much.

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posted February 28, 2007 01:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Movie Academy Yanks Oscar Clips From YouTube


Favorite highlights of Sunday night's 79th Annual Academy Awards telecast posted on YouTube by viewers were removed Tuesday and replaced with a message reading, "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences," Daily Variety observed today (Wednesday). Academy executive administrator Ric Robertson told the trade publication that the organization had asked YouTube to remove the clips "to help manage the value of our telecast and our brand." Meanwhile film exhibitors are grumbling about Jerry Seinfeld's quips during the telecast about the high prices at theater concession stands. ("You rip us off on overpriced crap.") In a message to L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, Gene Oliver, a theater owner in Pryor, OK, wrote, "My theater works on a profit margin of 8-10 percent and we work very hard to keep movies available to the public. The only reason that theaters MUST charge the prices for concessions is to survive. Without concessions there would be NO venues for the exhibition of film. Without popcorn there would be no industry, it is that simple."

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fred
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posted March 01, 2007 09:24 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG



It's Not All YouTube -- The Web Is a Trove Of Watchable Videos
March 1, 2007; Page B1
I love YouTube. As a pop-culture junkie, I watch its videos daily, whether goofy amateur productions or clips -- often of dubious legal status -- lifted from TV shows or movies.

But, while YouTube is sometimes seen as synonymous with the Internet video revolution, there is a lot more to Web video. In fact, some of the most interesting video on the Web isn't even the type of stuff that's most popular on YouTube -- short, one-off clips.

In various corners of the Web, people are producing real, episodic TV shows, including news, drama and comedy -- sometimes with real actors and professional production values. Some of these longer-form, episodic shows are called video blogs, or vlogs, but others simply call themselves shows. Instead of lasting just a few minutes, they can run up to half an hour. These programs have more in common with regular broadcast and cable shows than with those emailed clips.

One of these days, a real hit show will emerge on the Web.

To be sure, such Web TV shows aren't brand new. Ever since Apple began offering free video blogs on its iTunes store, people have been making them. One of the first to achieve popularity was a cheeky daily newscast called "Rocketboom," which made a star of its first host, Amanda Congdon, who has moved to the ABC News Web site. ("Rocketboom" continues with another host.) Another was a comedy called "Tiki Bar TV."

But the trend has accelerated and deepened lately, and a number of interesting sites have sprung up. My favorite is blip.tv1, run by a team made up of a former systems administrator for the NHL, and a former TV news reporter and producer. Blip.tv (not to be confused with a similar-sounding site called bliptv.com) hosts a bunch of these new Web TV series, and also helps them attract funding, sponsors and advertisers. Anyone can upload a show.

One of my favorite shows available on blip.tv is called "Goodnight Burbank," a comedy series about the squabbling that goes on behind the scenes at a local TV news show. Another is "Alive in Baghdad," news reports from Americans and Iraqis on how the war affects average Iraqis. "Cube News 1" is a series about life in the office cubicle. Other shows I've enjoyed on blip.tv include "HotRoast," "The Ministry of Unknown Science" and "Josh Leo."

Each show on blip.tv is accompanied by a profile page, comments from viewers and sometimes a blog. Many aren't exclusive to the site. Some have their own Web sites, and episodes can also be found on YouTube and downloaded from iTunes and other sites. In fact, blip.tv provides links that make it easy to subscribe to shows on iTunes and other sites. But blip.tv does a good job of gathering a whole bunch of these Web TV series in one location.

Another good place to find these kinds of video blogs and Web TV series is at the iTunes Store. Unlike the music, commercial-TV shows and movies that Apple sells there, these Web video series are free. And because they are on iTunes, you can easily download them for viewing on a Windows or Macintosh computer, or on an iPod. You can even watch them on a real TV if you plug a computer or iPod into the set, or buy Apple's forthcoming Apple TV product.

There are way too many Web series and video blogs on iTunes to list here, but if you go to the podcast page in the iTunes store and scroll down to Featured Video Podcasts, you can get an idea of what is available. iTunes includes several Web-only video series produced by the big TV networks, including a fascinating series from ABC called "The Day It Happened," with historic footage on events such as the Kennedy assassination, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the wedding of Princess Diana.

Another site worth watching is brightcove.com2, from a company whose main business is selling the technology for doing Web videos to big media concerns, including Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of this newspaper. But brightcove also hosts Web video from average folks and small outfits. It will soon introduce a feature to allow average users to record video directly to its Web site and then mix it, legally, with clips licensed from big media companies.

Yet another worthwhile site is Network2.tv3, which attempts to aggregate a wide variety of Web videos in one place.

I've only scratched the surface of the available video sites, but if you like YouTube, you may love what else is out there.

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com4. See video versions of my reviews at wsj.com/mossbergvideo5.

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posted March 02, 2007 09:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The BBC has struck a content deal with YouTube, the web's most popular video sharing website, owned by Google. Three YouTube channels - one for news and two for entertainment - will showcase short clips of BBC content. The corporation will also get a share of the advertising revenue generated by traffic to the new YouTube channels.

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posted March 02, 2007 05:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
BBC Comes To YouTube


Clips from BBC programming will soon become available on YouTube, following a deal between the British broadcaster and the video website announced today (Friday). Under the deal, the material will be accompanied by "limited" advertising, except in the U.K. Chris Maxey, partnership development director at YouTube, told Britain's Guardian: "We are interested in testing out this new medium. It is new for all of us and we have to see what the community likes or accepts in terms of advertising and what works for such a new medium."

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posted March 05, 2007 09:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH WINTER INTERN     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google moves YouTube ahead
Since the acquisition, more deals struck for video, though copyright issues remain
Ellen Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, March 4, 2007


In a clip posted on YouTube shortly after Google said it was acquiring the popular online video site for a whopping $1.65 billion, YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen jokingly referred to the deal as two kings getting together.

Five months later, the two kings have been quietly trying to make the merger successful, even while wrangling with several critical issues:

-- Even as it strikes more than 1,000 agreements to put basketball games, classic television shows and other material online, Google faces mounting pressure from Hollywood to manage the copyrighted clips that continue to appear inappropriately on its YouTube site.

-- With competition coming from other upstarts, such as Joost and Daily Motion, YouTube is vying to maintain its hip reputation as the place to go online.

-- To top it off, Mountain View's Google and San Bruno's YouTube must figure out how to make money off its vast library of Internet videos.

The concerns come as Google takes advantage of the growing online video phenomenon, led by YouTube. Already dominant in Internet search advertising, Google hopes that its acquisition of YouTube could help it broaden its advertising revenue.

Certainly acquisitions take time -- years usually -- before they show their worthiness or lack thereof. And, so far, Google is operating from deep in the hole with YouTube. An analyst report last week from Bear Stearns & Co. showed that YouTube had revenue of $15 million in 2006, which means Google paid more than 100 times the video site's annual intake. But no one's ready to panic.

"It's still way too early to judge if it's been successful or not," said UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter. "Google is building itself for the long term and this is one piece in building that."

But it is clear that Google's backing has opened doors for YouTube and made it an even more formidable contender in the world of media content than it was before.

Cutting deals

Take last week's deal with the NBA, which created a channel of about 30 authorized clips on YouTube. Negotiations with YouTube stemmed from the basketball league's original partnership with Google.

"Obviously, we came to the deal through Google," said Steve Grimes, NBA's vice president of interactive. "Would we have ended up here any other way? It's certainly possible. (But) the Google connection is what made it happen in the time frame it did."

Google and the NBA had paired up last year in a one-season deal, in which Google sold NBA games on video.google.com for $3.95 each. Though that service has ended, the NBA has since moved on to be part of a new advertising test with Google.

Google is taking videos made by the NBA, as well as Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Dow Jones & Co., Conde Nast and others, pairing them up with commercial advertising and distributing them to a network of Web sites.

In the three-way deal, which began last month, Google supplies a Google-branded video player that runs both the clips and the advertising. For instance, viewers can watch NBA clips on the basketball site BBall.com. Once the clip plays, a commercial airs. Each time it's watched, the advertiser pays Google, which then shares the revenues with the NBA and BBall.com.

No such deal exists with YouTube. But it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that, if Google's experiment goes well, YouTube might adopt a similar model. For now, YouTube and the NBA have agreed to share advertising that runs alongside the NBA clips and videos of fans showing off their best basketball moves.

"We are committed to supporting this medium with advertising," said Chris Maxcy, YouTube's head of business development. "We'll be testing out a number of different formats. We're going to do the right thing for the community."

In an e-mailed response to questions, David Eun, Google's vice president of content partnerships, said the merger has been going smoothly so far.

"YouTube will continue to work with content partners large and small to provide them with platforms to promote and monetize their content, and engage and grow their audiences," Eun said. "Both Google and YouTube are exploring a wide variety of ways to monetize online video content and the early results have been very encouraging."

The copyright issue

Complicating matters, however, is a sticky copyright problem.

Pirated clips began appearing on YouTube almost since its inception two years ago. One in particular, a "Saturday Night Live" skit, even helped put the site on the map.

Now that Google has ponied up $1.65 billion for ownership, which brings with it legal liability, YouTube is under more pressure than before to strike deals to publish those clips legitimately and remove the ones that aren't.

Media companies have been frustrated by the endless whack-a-mole cycle of pirated clips. Even as one is taken down, another pops up in its place.

YouTube has developed filtering and content identification tools to locate the inappropriate videos, which it has been offering to its partners and rolling out in parts. The NBA, for instance, said it plans to work with YouTube's filtering system to take down the game clips that it didn't authorize to be on the site.

The copyright battle came to a head last month when Viacom, after unsuccessful negotiations with YouTube, ordered the company to remove more than 100,000 copyrighted clips from its site, including popular snippets of "Chappelle's Show" and "The Colbert Report." Days later, it struck a content-sharing deal with rival Joost.

The move underscored the tension between YouTube and the content companies as they try to find common ground.

The media companies realize that, no matter what, the latest technology will make it possible to transfer near-perfect copies of television shows and movies over the Internet. Meanwhile, Google and YouTube have been wielding the proverbial carrot and stick, said Lee Bromberg, co-founder of the intellectual property law firm Bromberg & Sunstein.

"The carrot has been, 'Your work on our electronic database is going to get a lot more exposure.' On YouTube, your television show and music video will have a lot more people seeing it if (users) can poke around and find it."

But it hasn't been that easy.

Google "has gotten more heat than expected from content providers," said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research.

The tensions haven't reached lawsuit status -- yet. Such a fight could be long and costly, but with Google's backing, YouTube could afford it. And that may be why media companies have held back so far, Bromberg and others said.

Google and YouTube have something to gain from the deals, too. For the company to make money from advertising -- and the potential is huge, with an estimated $70 billion to $80 billion spent in television advertising -- Google and YouTube need the premium videos. Because viewers are more likely to watch these clips than myriad user-generated ones, advertisers are willing to pay more for them.

"You will not make money advertising against a Lonelygirl15," McQuivey said, referring to the faux teenage actress that became a sensation on YouTube last year. "Someone watching 'The Colbert Report' is worth more to an advertiser than some video submitted by a teenager."

Though much of the focus has been on deals with the major networks and studios, YouTube has quietly been signing thousands of smaller ones, including content-sharing agreements with smaller (and diverse) partners like PBS and TNA Wrestling.

"There's a lot of focus on the big, big deals, yet we're doing a number of very important (smaller) deals," Maxcy said. "I think those are equally important as the large deals we're entering in."

'Traffic, traffic, traffic'

At the same time, traffic is increasing at YouTube. That, of course, means that YouTube should be able to convert its popularity into dollars.

"In the real estate business, it's about location, location, location," said Sasa Zorovic, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. "On the Internet, it's about traffic, traffic, traffic. If you have traffic, you will be able to monetize it one way or another."

Traffic to YouTube was 24 percent higher for the week ending Feb. 24 than for the week ending Feb. 3, the week that Viacom demanded its clips be removed, according to Internet metrics firm Hitwise. The average amount of time spent on YouTube has also steadily increased to almost 22 minutes per user.

Instead of Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," users were more interested in watching Super Bowl advertisements and user-generated media such as an animated clip called "Charlie the Unicorn," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research for Hitwise.

Indeed, Jonathan Chee, an 18-year-old freshman at UC Davis, said that although he's found it harder to find Dave Chappelle footage on YouTube, he still goes to the site to find other videos, such as spoken-word performances.

"It's still pretty entertaining," said Chee, who is originally from Daly City. "If you can't find something, you can look for something else."

But Rebekah Lee, a 16-year-old high school junior from Fremont, said that although she used to enjoy watching television shows on YouTube, the latest clips haven't been so interesting. These days, she goes to ABC.com to catch "Ugly Betty," which ABC streams online with commercials.

"I still have friends who go on YouTube all the time, but I don't," she said. "I guess I lost interest."

The percentage of trendy 18-to-24-year-olds that hit YouTube has dropped, according to Hitwise. It's a sign that its audience is becoming broader and more mainstream.

In the end, though, it all comes back to advertising.

"The true measure of success will be five years from now, if Google is a central clearinghouse for video advertising," Schachter said. "That's what this business is about."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YouTube's media deals
-- The BBC introduced two YouTube channels and plans a third later this year. The channels will include features such as "Life on Mars" and "Top Gear" and eventually BBC News.

-- Wind-up Records, the label representing groups such as Evanescence, made its music videos available on the site.

-- The NBA began hosting a channel with game clips from the 2006-2007 season and created a space for fans to post clips of their best basketball moves.

-- Digital Music Group Inc., which owns the rights to thousands of music recordings and classic television shows such as "My Favorite Martian" and "Gumby," has made parts of its catalog available.

-- The Sundance Channel introduced a YouTube channel, with clips from Sundance Channel shows and festival news.

Source: Chronicle research

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YouTube partners
Media companies have taken advantage of YouTube's huge audience by uploading official footage from their shows.

Adult Swim

Beggars Group

Capital Records


CBS
Charlie Rose

Fox News Blast

G4TV

GameTrailers.com

The Games Network


NBA
NBC Entertainment

Network Music


NHL

PBS
Playboy

Showtime

Sundance Channel

TNA Wrestling

TVT Records

Universal Music Group

VH1

Warner Music Group

We Put Out Records

Source: Chronicle research

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posted March 14, 2007 02:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Will Viacom Suit Send YouTube Down the Tubes?


Industry analysts were waiting to see whether other media companies would follow Viacom's lead in suing Google subsidiary YouTube for copyright infringement or instead use the threat of legal action as leverage to create favorable partnerships with the popular video website. Even at major media companies themselves, there appeared to be disagreement in the ranks over how such video-sharing sites should be dealt with. In an interview with CNNMoney.com, Brian Wieser, a senior VP at media buyer Magna Global, observed, "Marketing people love YouTube and legal people hate it." Indeed, Paul Cappuccio, the general counsel for Time Warner, signaled Tuesday that his company may be considering similar action. "Time is up for YouTube," Cappuccio told the Wall Street Journal. "It's no longer permissible for them to have unauthorized copyrighted material on there." News Corp spokesman Andrew Butcher told Bloomberg News: "We have always been supportive of content companies protecting their copyright." However, several reports indicated that some media companies may be less inclined to sue because they may not wish to risk harming existing partnerships with Google. Nor is it clear that they'll win if they do sue. YouTube has said that it cannot be held responsible for what users post on its site and that it removes copyrighted material at the owner's request. "We are confident that YouTube meets and exceeds its legal responsibilities," Google attorney Alexander Macgillivray told today's New York Times. But in an interview with USA Today, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman described Google/YouTube's course as "Take people's content and ask questions later." Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone added in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: "Any company or any person who illegally misappropriates our product has to be stopped." Reporting Viacom's $1-billion lawsuit, the Baltimore Sun commented today: "The notion of the Internet as a free ride, a place in cyberspace where almost anything is available for nothing, might at last be put to a real test."

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posted March 22, 2007 04:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Media Conglomerates Unite Against YouTube


NBC Universal and rival News Corp plan to announce as early as today that they are creating a video-sharing service to challenge Google's YouTube, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Thursday). According to the newspaper, the service will be integrated into the Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and MySpace websites, providing TV shows, movies, and user-generated material. Eric Garland, CEO of market researcher BigChampagne, said that the companies were "pooling resources" to challenge YouTube, which he described as "the most disruptive force" their business has ever seen. Unlike YouTube, which limits the length of uploads to ten minutes, the new service will feature full length movies and television shows from 20th Century Fox, the Fox TV network, NBC, and Universal Pictures -- as well as programs from their cable subsidiaries. The Times article did not indicate whether NBC Universal and News Corp also plan to follow Viacom's lead and pull all copyrighted clips from YouTube. Meanwhile a study by comScore Networks Inc. indicated Wednesday that although YouTube's growth may have been slowed by Viacom's action, it nevertheless attracts 150 million monthly visitors with 54.7 unique viewers. In January it streamed 1.17 billion videos. The number of visitors to YouTube during February, it said, was nine times more than it was during the same month a year ago.

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posted March 26, 2007 09:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
'Huckabees' Tirade Hits Internet


Outtakes from 2004 movie I Heart Huckabees featuring actress Lily Tomlin and director David O. Russell in an obscenity-laced tirade have left internet surfers stunned. The clips started appearing on websites on Friday and were picked up by US news show Extra. No explanation was offered as Tomlin raged at Russell during a scene in which she seen sitting next to co-star Dustin Hoffman in a car, while in another bizarre clip, the Three Kings moviemaker appears to lose his cool and clear a desktop of papers as he verbally attacks the actress. And when co-star Hoffman attempted to intervene at one point, the angry actress turned to him and said, "You shut the f**k up." Despite the apparent on-set bust-up, Tomlin was all smiles when she was asked about working with Russell when it came to promoting the quirky film. She told Extra reporters, "I just have great affection and regard for David." Of the outtakes on the internet, Tomlin says, "I love David, there was a lot of pressure in making the movie." It's not the first time Russell has upset one of his stars - George Clooney was far from impressed with the moviemaker's techniques on the set of war film Three Kings in 1999.

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posted March 31, 2007 10:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Clooney: "I Didn't Leak 'Huckabees' Footage"


George Clooney has issued a $1 million challenge to anyone who can prove he's behind the leak of internet outtakes of I Heart Huckabees. The footage, featuring actress Lily Tomlin and director Davd O. Russell screaming at one another, hit cyberspace late last week, and Clooney, who famously fell out with the moviemaker when they made Three Kings together, has been linked to the leak. But, in a statement released yesterday, the movie star wrote: "Contrary to popular opinion, neither the sound man, Ed Tise, nor yours truly sent in the David O. Russell tape. I saw it (footage) when we were working on Ocean's Twelve, and there have been quite a few copies traveling around town for the last couple of years. Any rumor that either of us put it on the internet is simply false." And Clooney is so keen to prove his innocence he's offering a huge reward if anyone can prove he was behind the leak. He adds, "(I will) offer a million bucks to anyone who would prove otherwise."

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