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Google vs. Viacom: Who Will Win?

soulxtc — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:44:12 +0000

Google’s finally responded to the Viacom lawsuit against YouTube exactly as many predicted it would: by taking the common carrier defense provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Whether that defense will work is up to the courts. But Google is in a much better position to defend itself against copyright violation changes than peer-to-peer networks were several years ago, when music companies went after the likes of Grokster and the original Napster for similar offenses. For one, Google’s YouTube has always limited the length of video clips that you can upload to its service, making users have to work much harder if they want to share full-length copyrighted material. For another, YouTube has a take-down mechanism in place, and has indicated that it would comply with copyright holders when asked to remove material. Plus it does use tools to try to filter out copyrighted content from being uploaded in the first place–however ineffective Viacom argues them to be–and is working on improving those tools even now.

But more than that, unlike P2Ps, YouTube doesn’t depend on copyrighted material for its success. A recent study by Vidmeter.com said that less than 10 percent of the site’s most popular videos were owned by copyright holders who want them gone, as fellow PC World blogger Cathy Lu pointed out. Even if the study’s numbers are too low, as Viacom and other content owners allege, it seems clear that a significant portion of YouTube’s appeal and success owes nothing to copyrighted content.

In addition, Google Video has content deals in place with some copyright owners and has shared ad revenue with them, a practice that is migrating to YouTube. That makes Google look much more like a partner than a pirate.

CBS inks online content distribution deals

soulxtc — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:10:01 +0000

CSI, Survivor, Late Night With David Letterman, news, sports shows, and more will all be offered online.

CBS today agreed to deals with Joost, Microsoft, ComCast, and Time Warner to begin allowing them to provide CBS content online in exchange for a share of all advertising revenue generated.

Some of the other companies involved in the online distribution deal include Brightcove, Veoh, Sling Media, AOL, Netvibes and CNET Networks.

CBS already distributes many of its shows online through Yahoo!, iTunes, and its own Web site.

Viewers will be able to watch shows like crime drama CSI, Survivor, Late Night With David Letterman, news, sports shows, and more with free content supported by advertising revenues which will be split between CBS and its partners.

According to an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal, the broadcaster had wanted to keep 90% of the ad revenues generated by its shows but, details of the exact division are not yet known.

This is big news for CBS as it allows it to further expand the reach of its content, add an additional source of revenue, and also perhaps even cut down on the number of people who grab CBS shows from P2P and file-sharing networks.

It’s also big news for Joost, the still fledgling on-demand online content distribution service from the guys behind KaZaA and Skype. It already worked out a deal with Viacom a few months back to offer content from MTV, Comedy Central, BET, and Paramount Pictures.

Viacom gets “JOOST” up P2P style

soulxtc — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 23:44:59 +0000

In a slap to the face of YouTube, Viacom said it plans to soon deliver free films and television shows through Joost, the global on-demand broadband television service from the creators of KaZaA and Skype.

After failing to reach a deal with YouTube, Viacom found a partner that was more than eager to satisfy its demands in order to solidify a content delivery partnership.

Founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the two Scandinavian entrepreneurs behind KaZaA and Skype, which shook up the music and telephone industry respectively, Joost delivers on-demand advertiser-supported TV programming.

Powered by a secure, efficient, piracy-proof internet platform, Joost enables a high-quality video experience based on premium content, while guaranteeing copyright protection for content owners and creators. Content security was crucial to winning over Viacom’s execs, and actually made Joost a far better choice than YouTube, which has no content security or DRM whatsoever.

“The Joost platform is in essence a closed system,” said Allen Weiner, an analyst at Gartner Inc., a market research firm in Stamford, Conn. “The ability for piracy and content to be stolen is minimal.”

In a chain letter I received from Joost this afternoon, Dirk-Willem van Gulik, CTO of Joost, describes the new deal with Viacom:

Joost Unplugged!
Great news from the Joost Content Team. Today we’re announcing a major partnership with Viacom. Which will bring programming and lots of channels from Viacom’s key brands and properties available on Joost on our imminent launch.
MTV will offer popular shows, both past and present, including Laguna Beach, Beavis & Butthead, Real World, Punk’d and My Super Sweet Sixteen,while COMEDY CENTRAL will feature episodes from Stella, CCP’s and Freak Show. Nickelodeon, CMT: Country Music Television, MTV2, Logo, Spike TV, mtvU, and Gametrailers.com will also provide content. VH1’s offerings will include episodes of Flavor of Love, Surreal Life, and I Love New York. BET’s Networks’ offerings will include some of its biggest shows, including Beef, DMX: Soul of a Man, Comic View and recent smash hit American Gangster. Also, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage andParamount Classics will be providing full-length feature films from its catalog of classics and recent releases.
This content isn’t available yet. We’re working hard on shipping, transcoding and feeding the P2P network (and no, despite malicious gossip to the contrary – engineering is not giving Star Trek or Ren&Stimpy top priority) it will all be there for our launch.
Stay tuned!
Dw. — Dirk-Willem van Gulik, CTO, Joost.

If this does indeed prove to be true, and the content options live up to their promises, I think Joost just may revolutionize TV after all. Up until now the options have been limited to pretty boring stuff, content of a cheap cable TV nature that really weren’t worth watching. But now, if it begins to offer quality programming like “Beavis and Butthead”(love those guys) and full-length feature films, then I’ll definitely be tuning in.

Unfortunately for those that aren’t already BETA testing Joost, it’s still limited to invite only.

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

Shunning YouTube, Viacom hooks up with Joost

soulxtc — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:33:45 +0000

Viacom has announced a deal with Joost that will see the new P2P-based video start-up "broadcasting" Viacom’s music videos, TV shows and other materials on the service.

Viacom will provide Joost with content not only from MTV, but also from BET, Comedy Central, and even movies from Paramount. The news comes less than two weeks after Viacom backed out of talks with YouTube and demanded that their content be removed from the site. YouTube pulled down more than 100,000 videos.

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), which first broke the news, Viacom usually takes a 2/3 stake in the advertising profits stemming from such deals. The terms of this specific deal have not been disclosed, but we believe it’s in that general ballpark.

"We’re extremely pleased to be working with Joost, and couldn’t be prouder to be a key partner in the launch of the next generation in broadband video technology," said Philippe Dauman, Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer in a statement. "In addition to strong partnerships we have with traditional distributors, we will continue to seek out partners like Joost, which has created an exciting breakthrough platform that represents not only a fantastic user experience, but one that is built on a compelling and sustainable business model that respects both content creators and consumers."

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told the Journal that Joost’s promise to protect their copyrights was a major factor in their decision, and also a stumbling block in their discussions with YouTube/Google. At the moment is it quite easy to download and store video content from YouTube, but no such exploit for Joost is known to exist. It is difficult to know exactly what Dauman means by protection, however.

READ REST OF ARTICLE…

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

Viacom mulls bid for networking site

soulxtc — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 00:07:43 +0000

Viacom, the US media group, is considering a bid for Bebo, the social networking site.

The acquisition would represent the latest attempt by Viacom to regain ground lost to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in the social networking and user-generated content realm.

Viacom lost out to its rival in a bidding war last year for MySpace, now the world’s leading social networking site, when News Corp paid $580m (£304m) for the young company. The acquisition caused News Corp’s rivals to look again at the value of sites that allow users to share their own messages, photos, music and videos.

News of Viacom’s interest in Bebo came a day after the media group announced a deal with Google to distribute its content through thousands of niche websites and blogs affiliated to the internet company.