Earlier this week, the traffic experts at Hitwise said that despite the pulling of Viacom content from YouTube, the Google video site's traffic has grown 14% since then. Not to be outdone, Viacom Thursday unveiled impressive Web growth of its own, posting year-over-year gains of 90% on its Comedy Central site, 50% on its MTV site, and 30% on its Nickelodeon site. The numbers come from Viacom's fourth-quarter earnings, though the gains don't reflect the company's move to add free video-sharing to its individual Web sites. Still, Viacom President Philippe Dauman said video-streaming traffic had increased "dramatically" on …

Big media may be frustrating YouTube's efforts to license their content, so parent Google has responded by shifting its strategy somewhat. Big media deals are still on its radar, including one with the BBC, but Google's new goal is to add more than 200 small media partnerships per quarter. A few of the smaller partnerships have already been announced, including the National Basketball Association and the English soccer club Chelsea FC. In both deals, the organizations get their own channels where they can post clips, while letting users upload their own videos. On Tuesday, Google announced a deal …

The eBay Media Marketplace, which would allow buyers of national TV and other ad mediums bid for advertising slots via the Internet, certainly sounds interesting, but ad sellers thus far aren't biting. Several blue-chip advertisers have signed up for the new service, which officially went live Wednesday for registration purposes. But here's nary a seller in site. (See Media Daily News, March 2) Of course, it's early days yet, but understandable that the specter of a measurable supply-and-demand marketplace is a scary prospect for content owners. Could it be that demand isn't high enough to justify sellers' exorbitant prices? …

For contemporaneous coverage, comments and observations of the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Media Conference & Trade Show in Las Vegas this week, periodically click on this special edition of MediaPost Raw.

As we know, big media is turning it's back on YouTube. Viacom, News Corp.'s MySpace, Sony Corp, and Time Warner's AOL are all trying to beat the video-sharing giant at its own game, investing in or building their own such networks. It's a bad idea, believes CNNMoney.com. Why? Because it doesn't look like YouTube is any less popular, which is exactly what needs to happen for a rejection plan to succeed. According to Web traffic monitor Hitwise, YouTube's traffic actually increased 14 percent in the two weeks following Viacom's announcement to pull its content, suggesting that YouTube isn't as …

Democratic Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson and Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain have all bought video channels on YouTube, where they can post video of themselves. Members of YouTube will be able to post a video response or asks questions of each candidate, who gets the final say on what appears on their channel. The degree of control offered by the Web channels is a way for the 2008 hopefuls to circumvent the problems that plagued their peers ahead of last year's election. The oft-cited "macaca" incident, in which Rep. …

Media entrepreneur Mark Cuban, a vocal YouTube critic, says the YouTube-Oscar controversy raises a broader question facing media companies. Oscars clips were illegally uploaded, but what's the difference between 200,000 users watching that content on YouTube versus the Oscars.com site? Control. Obviously, Oscar wants control of its content, something it doesn't have over YouTube. However, Cuban says, why not fight back - that is, use YouTube to your advantage. YouTube can be a subversive content free-for-all, but it's also a powerful, free promotional tool if exploited properly. Here's what the academy could have done: post a 10-second clip of …

Early Thursday, Google posted a notice to its AdWords blog outlining a new plan to help advertisers prevent click fraud. Well it's about time. Click fraud is the practice of illegally driving up the cost of clicks by deploying automated software or paid consumers to repeatedly click on ads. Advertisers use this to drain competitors' AdWords budgets, while publishers use it to generate more revenue from AdSense. Click fraud is the scourge of the search marketing industry. Action from Google was long overdue, especially considering that the search giant makes money in spite of the problem. Now, …

Is the age of the electronic ad exchange upon us? Imagine a Googleized world where advertisers bid on inventory in a system based solely on supply and demand. This would be a world without upfronts, overpriced TV ads and ... media buyers? Not. The initiative is orchestrated by the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Together with eBay and other technology provider partners, the 4As showed off the so-called eBay Media Marketplace at its annual Media Conference and Tradeshow in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The organization assured its members they would not be put out of business by allowing buyers …