YouTube to Offer Full-Length TV Shows from DMGI
by Cynthia Brumfield
2007-02-12
Until now, YouTube, the Google-owned online video sharing giant, has restricted its offerings to 10-minute clips. But, under a pact with Digital Music Group (DMGI) announced today, YouTube will begin offering full-length TV shows including many classic TV shows that are part of DMGI’s library.
Among the shows that will appear on YouTube are "Gumby," "I Spy," "My Favorite Martian," and "Peter Gunn." Altogether, YouTube will gain the rights to distribute 4,000 hours of DMGI’s catalog of content. The two companies will split the ad revenue generated on the pages where the content appears.
The deal marks one of the first big licensing arrangements for YouTube since Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion late last year. Google has been actively negotiating with Hollywood studios and other top content providers to expand the legitimate availability of video content on the site in order to monetize YouTube’s massive audiences.
But, aside from deals with CBS and the National Hockey League, YouTube hasn’t cut any major video content deals since its acquisition by Google was announced. The DMGI deal, although important because it gives YouTube long-form video, isn’t likely to induce other major content providers to work out their own arrangement with YouTube.
Indeed, earlier this month, one of the biggest TV and film content providers, Viacom, ended negotiations with YouTube and ordered that 100,000 of its video clips be pulled from the site. Viacom contends that YouTube has been too slow in delivering its promised content filtering tool that would enable copyright owners to identify whether their content had been uploaded to the site without authorization.
It doesn’t help that News Corp.-owned social networking site MySpace announced today the availability of its own “fingerprinting” technology that will help the site police and remove copyrighted video and audio content. It also doesn’t help Google much that a group of top media companies including News Corp., Viacom, Sony, NBC Universal, Time Warner and Walt Disney Co., are miffed at Google for allowing web sites that show pirated TV and film content to purchase AdWords that direct consumers across the Internet to their sites.
For now, however, YouTube has landed its first deal for long-form TV content. In addition to the TV shows, DMGI has agreed to allow certain music for which it has the full rights to be in user-generated videos which are uploaded to YouTube.
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