Google free ad-supported videos contrasts with Apple

Stan Beer
Saturday, 24 June 2006 07:18

Opinion and Analysis

Google, a company that has some great online technology, is really in the business of selling advertising. This fact was once again hammered home by a strategic new product offering the company is testing. Free video downloads, supported by advertisements, could well be the way of the future. The model appears to be diametrically opposed to the one Apple Computer is currently trying to hawk in Hollywood.

Until now, the Google Video service, which is in beta, has not exactly caught the public imagination. Although the pricing model seems reasonable at 99c for a daily rental or up to US$14.99 to buy, the content has been limited and there are issues with quality.

When it comes to movies, people don't want to pay money for inferior content and quality, regardless of the convenience of having online access. However, if the content becomes more diverse and the quality improves as they invariably will, consumers may very well be prepared to download movies and TV shows for free. In fact, they have already shown for years that they support a similar model with free to air TV, so why not free video downloads supported by Google ads?

The new Google Video trial of ad supported video downloads actually purveys a much less intrusive form of advertising than the stop and start interruptions that consumers have begrudgingly accepted for years on free to air TV. The free videos from Google are sponsored by fairly unobtrusive static banner ads that sit in the top of the video window plus a 30 second commercial at the end of video. Google could conceivably experiment with inserting a commercial or two at the beginning of a video and few would complain. After all it's free.

The Google Video service contrasts markedly with the approach taken by Apple Computer. Apple's Steve Jobs has been lobbying hard to get the movie industry to agree with his one price fits all $9.99 movie downloads. In contrast, Google, which offers 99c "day passes" as well the opportunity to purchase downloads, has already shown that it more fully understands the mentality of movie watchers most of whom do not want to fork out the cash to buy a movie that will gather dust after it has been watched a couple of times.

Providing ad supported free movies and TV episode downloads demonstrates further that Google has gained a level of understanding of the video consumer market that Apple, which makes its money by selling hardware, does not appear to have grasped. Movies are not music.