Old media "YouTube killers" just don't get it

Stan Beer
Saturday, 24 March 2007 12:26

Opinion and Analysis

It seems that nearly every day lately we hear something about forces from the old media world coming up with an idea or a proposed alliance to curb the growing new media entertainment phenomenon known as YouTube. While some have accepted the inevitable and have jumped on the YouTube bandwagon, it appears obvious that others still don't get it.

Take Viacom for instance. This old media player has not only launched a $1 billion law suit against the Google-owned YouTube but it has formed an alliance with the fledgling peer-to-peer web TV service Joost.

Viacom obviously believes that it can take down one of the most popular web entertainment destinations in history by helping users get free access to TV shows on the web supported by commercials. It is not alone. Other old media players such as News Corp and NBC believe they can do the same thing. They are all sadly mistaken.

YouTube is not web TV. It is part of a new paradigm in interactive online entertainment called social networking. It is as much about contributing and sharing content as it is accessing content. It is more about sharing visual experiences and viewpoints than watching a poor quality 10 minutes clip from the  latest episode of Heroes that has been illegally posted by a YouTube user.

Jonathan Arber analyst at research group Ovum put it succinctly when he commented on a recently announced NBC and News Corp that has been touted by some sections of the (old) media as a threat to YouTube.

“The announcement that NBC and News Corp are joining forces to launch a free, ad-supported online video service in the US, offering many of their popular TV programmes and movies over the Internet, has raised questions about the impact on YouTube,” said Arber.

“However, this service will not be a YouTube killer, or even much of a competitor. YouTube is popular because it combines equal parts user-generated video content and social networking, as well as mainstream TV episodes and movies from all over the world – it is about users worldwide controlling what they watch and when they watch it. This new offering from NBC/News Corp seems to be focused chiefly on the delivery of mainstream content, and the control will be strictly in the hands of the content owners.”

Arber has captured in a nutshell the essence of YouTube's astounding popularity with its growing legion of tens of millions - perhaps hundreds of millions - of fans.

As the increasing popularity of sites like YouTube, MySpace, Wikipedia and Second Life demonstrate, the new breed of online user is not content just to sit in front of the idiot box at a set time each week to be served up pap when and where elite content providers decide.

The global nature of the Internet has also made redundant the outmoded geographically-based content distribution system that the old media still clings to.

An Internet user in the Czech Republic can access the same content on YouTube at the same time as a user in the US. Why should TV shows be any different?

The lawsuit lodged by Viacom against YouTube does indeed pose a threat - but not to YouTube. Old media players like Viacom risk facing a backlash from the already huge army of YouTube supporters, not to mention Internet freedom activist groups such as Electronic Frontier Foundation.

There already appears to be an undercurrent of resentment building as is evidenced by a recent lawsuit lodged against Viacom in the US District Court in San Francisco. According to an Associated Press report, the lawsuit claims Viacom improperly asked YouTube to remove a parody of a Viacom show called The Colbert Report.

Whether the lawsuit against Viacom has merit or not, it illustrates that the newfound freedom of access to information and content provided by players such as YouTube and Google is something that Internet users are not going to give up easily. Those who try to stand in their way, such as Viacom, may find that they have bitten off more than they can chew.