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Are Networks Making YouTube Irrelevant
May 24, 2007
CBS today announced broader web distribution of its TV show clips, which seems to be part of a growing trend among big media companies to control Internet sharing of their content and perhaps act as a vaccine against YouTube. It goes like this - make your clips available to as many people who want to watch them online, let people share them and get Internet users to come to your web sites or those sites chosen to distribute the clips, whereby you can capitalize on the traffic with advertising and get users to bypass YouTube for those clips.
CBS today is doing this by adding new features, announced today, which allow users to share clips from shows on the CBS Audience Network on blogs, web sites and social network sites. CBS launched the online network last month with distribution deals with Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast and other Internet sites for select CBS TV programming. Today's announcement includes deals with web companies such as blog software maker Automattic and video distribution network Dave TV.
Former sister company Viacom said yesterday that it has found a strategy of making TV show clips widely available online has expanded its audience for TV shows and benefited it in attracting advertisers to its sites. Not to mention, the strategy gives the company control of its clips and makes YouTube, which it is suing for posting copyrighted clips, unnecessary for those types of clips. (Even George Lucas is using the availability strategy with Star Wars.)
At the same time, CBS is adding more original online content, launching web series, Clark and Michael, with Michael Cera (George Michael of Arrested Development) today. The show is a mockumentary about two guys trying to get their script made into a TV show and the first episode has some pretty funny bits. It's kind of got the feel of The Office (or even Arrested.) And Buster (Tony Hale) from Arrested makes an appearance . (Ironically, this series announced by CBS hours after it announced its broader distribution, doesn't seem to have an embed link that would allow me or others to post to our blogs. unless I just can't find it, which is also entirely possible.)
Posted by Jennifer Netherby on May 24, 2007 | Comments (0)
