The amount of armchair commentary on blogs and newspaper websites on News Corp./NBC’s announcement yesterday pertaining to their counterstrike to GooTube is dizzying.
I think clearly there is a lot of potential for anything that aggregates all of the content from the major networks in one place, allowing viewers to turn into users and run with the clips, literally.
You can say what you want about content creation, aggregation and distribution, but the fact is that if good content is one one site, and crappy content is on the other, you know which one will prevail. These days, distribution and technology is a commodity, content is not. I am biased of course, but let me just say that we at WatchMojo.com make a lot less outbound calls to get our library of 4,000 original clips onto sites than we get inbound calls from other sites call us asking for content. Those on the outside pontificating can have their claims, and those who are on the front lines will usually get the facts straight. Both sides are biased, one side is accurate though.
However, as many have pointed out, in theory the gameplan is sound, in practice, it’s all about execution, setting aside egos and letting the fear of a media world run by Google surpass their greed.
We’ve seen companies attempt to counter Napster and fail miserably.
However, the simple fact is that this notion of Embed Everything Everything - or E Cube - is not necessarily going to work with network’s premium content. YouTube made videos explode - the result of E Cube - because they did not own the content and did not care where it ended up, knowing very well that it would create viral effects.
When you own the content and have relationships with the talent, the game changes quite a bit. Some time ago, one of our hosts at WatchMojo.com called me and asked why he was on a website with risque material. It turned out, that someone had taken our clips off YouTube and embedded them on a site that also linked to adult content.
He was irate. I had to explain to him what our publishing policy was, what our relationship with YouTube was, how embed works, the pros and cons thereof; essentially, how the Web is a massive “series of tubes.”
Jokes aside, what this anecdote should demonstrate is that even if the media companies can execute, and there are arguments both supporting and rejecting that hypothesis, if it succeeds as well as they wish it will, it will be too successful for their own good.
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May 31st, 2007 at 12:25 am
[…] Cons Of Site Counters On Web Sites Video Wars: E Cube?I had to explain to him what our publishing policy was, what our relationship with YouTube was, how […]