UPDATE: Who needs Google? CBS vs. Viacom vs. NBC
Google CEO Eric Schmidt was asked on Wednesday at the company’s 2006 Q4 earnings call about YouTube monetization and the uploading of copyright content at YouTube.
Schmidt responded with typically vague Googley "philosophy":
The real value we found with people who have produced copyrighted work and the reason that they want to talk to us and want to work with us is we're talking to their fans. We know who those fans are, and those fans come to them for the copyrighted information and that is a highly monetizable base, and that's very attractive to the copyright holder.
Schmidt’s “valuing” of YouTuber “fans” reflects the Google YouTube promotional value positioning it is currently targeting vis a vs television network content producers, as I analyze in “Google’s fuzzy YouTube logic”:
In “Google to TV networks: Believe in YouTube,” I dissect one of the first public statements released from the Google owned YouTube. The press release is an amalgam of YouTuber viewing stats on CBS owned content headlined “After one month, CBS content among most viewed videos on YouTube, Nearly 30 Million Views Since Partnership Began Oct. 18.”
Google-YouTube and CBS strive to dazzle with impressive sounding YouTuber data…
Google, YouTube and CBS are currently hanging their video hats on warm and fuzzy “beliefs,” not on hard, trackable conversion metrics.
I concluded “Google will need to show content owners harder ROI metrics than “beliefs” in order to maximize its own ROI on the $1.65 billion YouTube.”
I asked earlier today “Is the Google YouTube honeymoon over?” in analyzing Viacom’s demand for hard ROI in requiring that YouTube take down 100,000 unauthorized video uploads of its copyright content.
I concluded “Viacom and all media properties must defend the business value of their content currently accruing to Google shareholders. They are required by law to do so for the benefit of their own shareholders.”Schmidt told the New York Times yesterday:
A bunch of us got on airplanes to talk to everybody (content owners). There is a relatively lengthy process of education on both sides. There is lots and lots of talking, and we have not hit any walls.
One day later, a big wall was hit. SEE:
“IS THE GOOGLE YOUTUBE HONEYMOON OVER?” also "YOUTUBE: IS VIACOM HURTING INNOCENT YOUTUBERS?" and "WHO NEEDS GOOGLE? CBS vs. VIACOM vs. NBC"
Take the Poll: Google vs. Viacom: Good cop, bad cop?