Video-sharing websites with an editorial viewpoint will be more successful
Another major model for video-sharing websites quite different from YouTube is based on having an editorial viewpoint, much in the same way a newspaper or magazine has an editorial viewpoint. Because having a giant database of video content is great, but in order to have an engaged audience and generate ad revenue, we need to be more vertically focused.
How? Providing content that is much more appropriate to either a single demographic group or a single social group. For that, you can have a small group of editorial volunteers that makes the content decisions for the larger community. The editorial voice is here their brand.
Some experts believe that sites with editorial filters will be more successful in the long run. Nielsen/NetRating's analyst Jon Gibs, senior director of media, says that "if you have a focused concept that is important to users, then you have a really engaged audience that is very targeted, and that's important to advertisers."
Video content over the Internet in China as a way to avoid regulations
MTV Networks and China's biggest portal Baidu.com have struck a deal to introduce American television and entertainment into China over the Internet. Western media companies, including Viacom's MTV Network, have struggled to get their programming onto television in China, and they have often been frustrated by new regulations, restrictions, delays and other hurdles.
Viewers of Baidu.com will pay a fee to download the content and there will also be advertising linked to the content.
What about the legal exposure of Google after YouTube accquisition?
Responding to the deal by Google to buy YouTube, Yahoo's CEO Terry S. Semel said this week he did not regret not buying the company. "I came out with a grave concern about how severe the copyright violations could be. It could be a gnarly problem if lawsuits come. And I did not want to put my company in this type of risk."
Connected with this, YouTube has deleted 30,000 clips that violate Japanese copyright laws, following the request from a group representing Japan's entertainment industry.
Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive officer, responding to the question about possible increased legal exposure due to the YouTube acquisition, says: “We’re relying on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as it is being imposed by law. There are not a lot of shades of gray in how it works. If you operate under this, companies have safe harbor. We do our very best to implement it as it is prescribed… It’s the law of the land and we absolutely operate by it.”
CBS strikes strategic alliance with YouTube and launches a new channel
CBS has launched a channel on YouTube with clips from CBS News, David Letterman, CSI, NCIS and CBS Sportsline. YouTube and CBS will share revenue from advertising sponsorships of CBS Videos.
Press release says: "CBS is the first TV network to test YouTube’s new advanced content identification architecture and reporting system which will allow CBS to protect its intellectual property by identifying and locating copyrighted CBS content on YouTube. CBS will then have the opportunity to either remove it from the site or, at CBS’s sole discretion, allow it to remain. If CBS allows the content to remain on the site, CBS will share in any revenue from advertising placed adjacent to the content."
Marketing plans are including blogs, as a way generate buzz on products
Many corporations are starting to include blogs in their marketing plans. They are increasingly conscious of the power, and potential pitfalls, of blogging. A favorable review from an influential blogger can help generate the kind of buzz around a new product, and a negative write-up can help doom a product before it even hits the market.
For that, American brands send to the bloggers their products by the time of its official introduction. Peter Hirshberg, CEO of Technorati, a blog-tracking service, says that "a year ago, brands were saying, oh no, not the blogosphere, and now they are saying, great this is an opportunity".
A sign of the times is also that now the Edelman public relations firm is sponsoring development of new Technorati sites in French, German, Italian, Korean and Chinese, involving an investment of several hundred dollars. For the record, there are more than 55 million of blogs in the world.
