Google Takes Viral Video to Another Level

Written by Aditya Kishore

Friday, January 23. 2009 at 10:20 AM EST 1 comment

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Google is trying to buddy up to major media conglomerates with a new strategy, according to some reports. Silicon Valley blog TechCrunch says Google has decided to share advertising revenue with owners of videos posted on its YouTube property, even if they are not the ones uploading them.

The idea is that if a consumer posts video content from a TV show, then any ad revenue that YouTube generates from that clip will be shared with the legal rights holders of that video content. Google would rely on its Content ID system to identify such content on YouTube.

Why would they pursue such a strategy? For Google this would be an attempt to placate other media giants who might be considering lawsuits along the lines of Viacom. But at the same time, I see it as a potentially important development for video advertising. Rather than treat the Web as a separate advertising medium, we’ve tried to re-use and match formats from other media to the Web. Banner advertising has come from newspapers and magazines, pre-roll ads from television, etc. Yet, the most successful online advertising format is search -- a format that is unique to the Web, and best suited to online user behavior.

Similarly, online video syndication is a Web-only concept. Sure, there’s syndication in the TV business, but it is either content that never made it on prime time, or content that has already been on prime time for years. The idea of distributing video to multiple sites at the same time, and simply adding up viewers for advertisers, is a Web-only idea. It is also well suited to the Web. As long as detailed tracking data and analytics are available, advertisers benefit, and as long as the same revenue can be generated per view, content owners benefit.

If YouTube does go through with this new strategy, they will be taking it a step further. Not only will it not matter where users see the video, it won’t matter who actually uploads it.

Obviously, there will be concerns from content owners. There always is, when any kind of change is suggested. And advertisers will want to know who exactly is watching and if there is a difference between a viewer at one site or version and another. If these issues can be resolved -- and they should be -- then we could be moving into a far more open and disruptive stage of video distribution.