YouTube Re-defines Entertainment With Move To Stream Legal TV Shows & Movies
For sure, the entertainment industry is going under possibly the most dramatic of transformations ever. IPTV, the insertion of Internet Protocol into Television has made viewers access television and video related services has now become possible with the promise of ubiquitous broadband access. Sameer Padhye, Vice President, Worldwide Service Provider Line of Business, Customer Advocacy, Cisco Systems, Inc. writes here “According to IDC, IPTV subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 89 percent, from 1.2 million in 2005 to nearly 30 million by 2010. n India, all major SPs have announced plans for IPTV deployments“. But, this is just one part of the story of technological advancements in the entertainment industry.
The other part of the story is related to YouTube.
CNET, an international news agency has confirmed that YouTube is set to re-define its product offering to the world. YouTube has made agreements with Sony Pictures and other Hollywood powerhouses to show full-length movies and television shows on the video-sharing website. TechCrunch reports that the other Hollywood biggies which would form a critical part of this endeavour are Metro Goldwyn Mayer, CBS, Lionsgate, Starz and the BBC. All of these companies have allowed their content in form of video and movies to be posted and downloaded for free on YouTube.
Now, that is what I call “Lateral thinking” on part of YouTube. What this does is that it takes competition to the backdoor and kicks it out. Did YouTube have any competitor in recent times when it came to video sharing ? Yes it did. Reports say that YouTube has been facing increasing competition from services such as iTunes and websites such as Hulu, which is a partnership between NBC Universal and News Corp.’s Fox, which air full-length television shows.
The history of YouTube goes back to 2006 when Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. Universal Music Group and YouTube announced plans earlier this month to launch a dedicated music video website, VEVO.com, which would feature artists from the world’s largest music company. This endeavor of YouTube to bring in movies and related stuff in its product offering is seen as a strategic decision to bring more professional content to the site known for its amateur videos and to generate revenue. Seems like Google understood that people prefer watching professionally produced dramas, comedies, documentaries, cartoons, and news programs more than what you watch at YouTube. Better late than Never. Isn’t it?
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt refused to comment on the plethora of reports that YouTube was close to a deal with top Hollywood studios, but made things clear by saying that an announcement related to this would be made “very very soon“.
Wait, I am not finished yet.
There is another twist in the tale when it comes to “Re-defining Entertainment”.
I came across this where I struck upon Verismo Networks. Now, this says that you can watch everything on your TV from the web without your PC. Check out the product page to know more about them.
Can you add 1 + 1? Youtube shows Tv Shows + Youtube on your tv = Death of cable?
So, Whats Next in Entertainment?
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I think everyone is following hulu.com very meticulously. to start off with youtube before they get into streaming “legalized” TV content, they should first clean up their prsent site and get rid of the pirated content. True there is so much of content that users upload and “it may be difficult to address every video” but youtube being youtube should be able to do that.
no i guess it is not the death of cable…i watch this newly launched http://www.startv.in (they should get more programs in) and watch cricket and news online…as I seldom get to watch TV..i would say that there is a very new audience out there and companies like hulu, startv, ndtv, youtube are going the right way. how long it may take to get the audience to reciprocate is the question..
btw MTNL here in india has been offering IPTV for quite sometime…would like to know how many takers are there for it
When Google first acquired YouTube, there was a massive ruckus created because of the blatant copyright violations due to pirated videos on YouTube. Infact, most industry experts criticized the move because Google’s massive financial backing gave copyright holders enough motivation to sue Goo-tube. And although the search giants have used YouTube as the cornerstone of their online strategy, they have yet to crack a brilliant scheme to monetize their $1.65 billion acquisition.
YouTube will always be a legend for showing us exactly how vast the market for UGC is. But from a business perspective, it is admin served, professional content where advertisers want their ads seen.