Well, I guess we can tell how well negotiations between video entertainment giant and YouTube have gone: Viacom demanded today that the dominant video sharing site take down all of its videos.
Viacom has asked that about 100,000 clips of its content be removed from the site. An outside consultant has produced a report that suggests that 1.2 billion streams (per year? per month?) on YouTube are attributable to the company’s various media properties, which include BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks and more. (See table at end.)
Altogether, Viacom has more than 100 TV networks around the globe — pulling down Viacom’s videos will take a huge amount of time, and even then it might be difficult for YouTube to identify every last little scrap of the company’s content to find every file. [Update: as this WSJ report mentions, the DMCA doesn’t require YouTube to take down every bit of Viacom’s content. Viacom must identify the specific pieces of copyrighted work it wants taken down.] I wonder if now isn’t the time for a true test of the DMCA’s take-down provisions.
| Viacom Brands | |
|
Cable Networks and Digital Media |
Film and Music Publishing |
| BET | Paramount Pictures |
| Comedy Central | Paramount Home Entertainment |
| CMT: Country Music Television | Dreamworks SKG |
| Gametrailers.com | Famous Music |
| iFilm | |
| Logo | |
| MTV: music television | |
| MTV2 | |
| MTVu | |
| MTV Networks International | |
| MTV Networks Online | |
| Neopets | |
| Nickelodeon | |
| Nick at Nite | |
| Noggin | |
| The n | |
| Spike TV | |
| TV Land | |
| VH1 | |
| xfire | |
| MTV Networks Digital Suite | |
Update: Viacom apparently wants all the content taken down by this afternoon. Viacom’s General Counsel Mike Friklas says that the company just reached a point of “zero tolerance” and “is asking to be paid.” The company issued a statement saying that Google-owned YouTube’s delay in producing filtering technology contributed to the extreme step.
“It has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users,” the entertainment giant said in a statement. “Filtering tools promised repeatedly by YouTube and Google have not been put in place, and they continue to host and stream vast amounts of unauthorized video.”Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:02 AM | Print | Comments (0)
The Washington Post’s Michael Shear has this great piece today about the absurd level of partisan bickering in the Virginia legislature. A Republican v. Democrat rift over a transportation bill is just one example of the sniping across the aisle, but what’s really interesting, and kind of funny, is that Democrats are videotaping boring scenes of legislative activity and posting them on YouTube in the hopes of showing up the Republicans as back-room dealers unwilling to open up legislation to full debate.
The average citizen watching the video probably has no clue what’s going on. A bunch of people are sitting and standing around a table talking about various resolutions and saying “aye” or “nay” in response to votes. Nothing here to shock the conscience or even mildly upset anyone. In fact, only legislative insiders can figuring out what’s going on.
But that won’t stop the Republicans from upping the ante. They’ve got cameras too and are just as capable of posting incomprehensible videos to YouTube.
“Unfortunately, they are ratcheting it up, and we are going to have our groups respond,” Griffith [House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem)] told The Washington Post. “Both sides can play that game.”Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:10 AM | Print | Comments (0)
They probably will. Look for Republicans with cellphone cameras at committee hearings soon. And if there’s not a Republican blog by the end of the session, it’s a safe bet there will be one next year.
Disney’s Bob Iger told the Financial Times’ this week that the studio has sold 1.3 million movies via iTunes since the company became the first Hollywood player to make its films available for download on Apple’s store back in September 2006. Iger also said that Disney has sold 20 million TV shows via iTunes since late-2005 when the studio also became the pioneer in selling TV content via iTunes.
These latest numbers from Disney jive pretty closely with projections I developed back in October (always gratifying when my forecasts bear out, although my projections are slightly more conservative than the reality). If my forecasts continue to bear out, this level of sales means that Disney is on track to sell at least 5.4 million films via iTunes this year, and over 43 millon downloads of TV shows, generating incremental revenue of nearly $150 million.
While $150 million is a drop in the bucket compared to Disney’s overall revenues, reflecting only 1% of the company’s total $34.3 billion fiscal 2006 total revenues, for example, it’s still gravy that Disney might not otherwise have had. One question is whether iTunes is cannibalizing Disney’s DVD sales.
Iger thinks not. “Pirates of the Carribean” and “Cars” were two of the most downloaded films via Tunes and yet the sale of the DVDs via retail beat expectations. He’s probably right. At this stage, consumers want both kinds of distribution. But over time, doesn’t it make sense that DVD sales will drop in the face of more efficient web-based movie distribution?
| Disney TV Shows Sold via iTunes | Disney Movies Sold via iTunes | Total | |||||
| # of TV Shows Sold (mil.) | Avg. Revenue Per Sale | Total Revenue for Quarter (mil.) | # of Movies Sold (mil.) | Avg. Revenue Per Sale | Total Revenue for Quarter (mil.) | Total Revenue, TV & Movies (mil.) | |
| 4Q05 | 1.00 | $ 1.99 | $ 1.99 | - | - | $ - | $ 1.99 |
| 1Q06 | 2.50 | $ 1.99 | $ 4.98 | - | - | $ - | $ 4.98 |
| 2Q06 | 4.00 | $ 1.99 | $ 7.96 | - | - | $ - | $ 7.96 |
| 3Q06 | 4.50 | $ 1.99 | $ 8.96 | 0.13 | $ 11.00 | $ 1.38 | $ 10.33 |
| 4Q06 | 5.99 | $ 1.99 | $ 11.91 | 0.75 | $ 11.11 | $ 8.33 | $ 20.24 |
| 1Q07 | 7.48 | $ 1.99 | $ 14.89 | 0.94 | $ 11.22 | $ 10.52 | $ 25.41 |
| 2Q07 | 9.35 | $ 1.99 | $ 18.61 | 1.17 | $ 11.33 | $ 13.28 | $ 31.89 |
| 3Q07 | 11.69 | $ 1.99 | $ 23.26 | 1.46 | $ 11.45 | $ 16.77 | $ 40.03 |
| 4Q07 | 14.61 | $ 1.99 | $ 29.08 | 1.83 | $ 11.56 | $ 21.17 | $ 50.25 |
| 1Q08 | 16.80 | $ 1.99 | $ 33.44 | 2.29 | $ 11.68 | $ 26.73 | $ 60.17 |
| 2Q08 | 19.32 | $ 1.99 | $ 38.46 | 2.86 | $ 11.79 | $ 33.74 | $ 72.20 |
| 3Q03 | 22.22 | $ 1.99 | $ 44.22 | 3.58 | $ 11.91 | $ 42.60 | $ 86.82 |
| 4Q08 | 25.56 | $ 1.99 | $ 50.86 | 4.47 | $ 12.03 | $ 53.78 | $ 104.64 |
| Source: Emerging Media Dynamics, Inc. analysis. © 2007. | |||||||
| Note: The quarters reflect calendar quarters, not Disney’s fiscal quarters. | |||||||
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