BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
26 Mar 2007

I wrote earlier about how armchair QBs were wrong about bashing Sumner Redstone (man, I am getting old and crusty if I am defending Mr. Redstone, next thing you know I’ll be singing the praises of Rupert Murdoch…) and that his two-pronged strategy with YouTube with CBS/Viacom made sense.

Here’s a perfect example.

1. I come across something on ESPN pertaining to sports business and the NFL.

2. I go to our sports blog to write about it.

3. I see my colleague, the Jackhammer, has embedded something from CBS’s coverage of NCAA Division 2 March Madness… with the title “One of the best finishes in the history of sports.”

Naturally, before I type up my post, I click and watch.  Indeed, ”one of the best finishes in the history of sports,” I suggest you watch it, it’s the final 45 seconds of the Div II NCAA finals, Barton vs. Winona.

4. I am amazed.  I will now pay some attention to college hoops, and this kid in the video.

5. I might actually watch some of the tournament… ok, probably not.

But, the point is: that’s why Redstone’s not crazy.  He is right that the value between live basketball programming and Jon Steward-esque material is very different and that YouTube represents something very different.  With basketball programming, if I am a fan, I will watch it live.  With Jon Stewart, fan or not, I would not stay up to watch it live, I’d catch highlights the next day…  In one, YouTube is clearly a promotional tool, in the other, it’s a Tivo.