Do big media productions matter in the online world? Marketwatch's Bambi Francisco says no. If you go to Google Video and look at the 100 most popular clips, the majority aren't made by professionals.
Video-sharing sites abound on the Web: YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, AOL's UnCut Video, etc. Of all the sharing sites out there, you'd expect Google and Yahoo to be the right platforms for big
brands, but aside from a few high-profile distribution deals, including CBS, Google Video and others are mostly full of small-time clips. Why? Consumers don't want to pay to watch TV. They'll pay to
put TV content on their iPods because they can take those with them--but what's the point of buying "CSI" for $1.99 on my PC when I can just set my DVR and watch it later for free without commercials?
We all know Apple is making a nice little business out of selling digital content on iTunes--million shows have been downloaded so far, but that's nothing compared to YouTube, which shows 50 million
videos a day. That said, YouTube is privately held, and its data is internal--meaning that we can't necessarily measure what they say against anybody else. Third-party traffic monitors like
Nielsen//NetRatings and comScore Media Metrix show conflicting usage data, so it's hard to know who to believe. Regardless, people are watching more of this short-form video stuff than anything else
because it's free--in many instances it's more compelling than what big media is able to churn out. Big media companies also have added headaches in moving content online. As one lawyer tells
Francisco: "Clearing copyrighted content is a nightmare." This content includes film rights, actor's rights, producers' rights, distributors' rights, and audio rights.
Read the whole story at Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide »
