I don’t really feel like picking sides in the FOX/NBC vs. Red Lasso matter, but the truth is, why are we surprised?
After seeing tolerance for YouTube create a mammoth who owns 75% of streams and 35% of eyeballs in the video space… why would traditional media let this slide? They didn’t… and Red Lasso says it will shut down.
Of course, this could simply be a tactic on NBC/FOX’s behalf to sue Red Lasso into a corner to weaken them in acquisition or investment talks… or it could simply be them learning from their experiences and not letting a startup run amok and build a business on their backs. When IGN sued me in 2006 for allegedly violating my non-compete (I wasn’t, and I won in court), some legal gurus told me maybe IGN was trying to corner me to buy WatchMojo.com on the cheap. I thought that was crazy, because I believed that I had left IGN on good terms, and that meant that CEO Mark Jung and EVP Dale Strang could have picked up the phone and said “Ash, let’s do a deal”. I think that strategy was personal… in this case, I am not sure if there are personal issues between the parties… but as much as I root for startups, come on… what did you expect?
Hey, call it what you want, but going forward, traditional media’s reaction to this kind of thing will be more Napster and less YouTube. Which incidentally, was the title of my post when the legal you-know-what hit the fan.
I will say this: chalk Red Lasso up as one more misguided VC bet in video. I believe the funding on this puppy was $6.5M. Nice. Mistake #2 was bringing in former executives in traditional media, supposedly to ease the tension. Hum… call me a cynic, but when executives leave a company, they’re not generally liked despite what the PR people say…
But, once again, who listens to me, right?
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