As a consumer, it’s faintly depressing to see Comedy Central insist that Daily Show clips are removed from YouTube - those clips were how I first got into the show, and it seems a daft thing to do when I can’t imagine those clips have done anything but win viewers. They were also among the most entertaining things on the site.
But this action was also inevitable; as inevitable as was the death of Napster, as is the eventual squishing of BitTorrent networks, in their current guise, and anywhere else where copyright is broken on a big scale. It’s not cool, and the digital rights folk won’t like it one bit. And unless Google can convince Comedy Central and other programme producers that it can actually monetise their clips better than they can (or their traditional networks can), it could make Google’s $1.65bn purchase price look even more of a bubble buy than it first appeared.
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COMMENTS / 4 COMMENTS
Ewan McIntosh thought this on Oct 29 06 at 11:16 amIt’s stupid for Comedy Central to have asked for them to be removed since I’ve also only known the show through those clips, but I wouldn’t be worrying about YouTube being a failure because Jon Stewart isn’t on it anymore. Google made their money in the week they bought it just through their share price differences and millions will continue to wade through YouTube looking for… whatever it is they want. Is it such a big deal for Google? No. Is it a big deal for Comedy Central - almost certainly maybe.
Neil Mc thought this on Oct 29 06 at 2:46 pmCouldn’t agree more, Ewan - this is far worse news for Comedy Central than it is for GooTube, or whatever the hell we’re calling it. But remember: Google made their money back through the share price - but that money is only on paper, and entirely conditional on market sentiment. If the markets think YouTube is broken, then then can easily lose that money all over again.
Not that there’s anything wrong with Google’s stategy, of course - a strategy so clever most folk are still trying to figure out exactly what it is.
Ewan McIntosh thought this on Oct 31 06 at 7:55 amI reckon Google’s attraction to its investors (most of whom will have kept hold of shares since the very first float) is that it will have a finger in EVERY pie. Whether one is a success or not in online video is neither here nor there - they own the competitor company so it’s a win win. If YouTube is a success they can merge Google Video with YouTube and create the BIGGEST online video service par excellence. If it’s a failure they can just say they are consolidating Google Video, no?
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