• PaidContent, Monday, March 30, 2009 10:45 AM

PaidContent reports that The Walt Disney Company and Google are close to settling a series of programming deals with Google's YouTube that would see clips from ESPN, ABC and other Disney properties appear on the Web's largest video sharing site. The blog has also learned that a YouTube deal would preclude a deal with Hulu, the joint video venture from News Corp. and NBC Universal. As part of the arrangement, Disney and YouTube would share revenue, with Disney controlling the ad inventory, although Google could get some inventory to sell, too. YouTube would also refer traffic back to Disney's properties. Both companies are also negotiating a full-episode deal that would put Disney programming on YouTube instead of on Hulu.

According to report author Staci Kramer, the latter negotiations are not as advanced as the former. Meanwhile, Disney is also in discussions over an exclusive programming deal with Hulu. Under this scenario, Kramer says Disney would have to choose between short-term guarantees that come from a YouTube deal versus the longer-term investment of having equity (an equal 30% share) Hulu.

YouTube accounted for 41% of all U.S. video streamed in February, according to comScore, compared with Hulu's 2.5% and Disney Online's .9%. The video sharing giant also had more than 100 million users. It will be interesting to see which way Disney decides to go with its online distribution strategy; Kramer notes that the discussions with Hulu and Google are being managed by the strategic planning group headed by corporate EVP Kevin Mayer.

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