• by Shankar Gupta , August 8, 2006

Google Monday said it had entered into a syndication deal with Viacom's MTV Networks as the initial step in a plan to syndicate a host of video clips, both professionally produced and user-generated, to publisher sites in the AdSense network.

"Today on Google Video, our goal essentially is to be comprehensive," said David Eun, Google's vice president for content partnerships. "We have everything from premium content all the way down to user-generated content and everything in between," he continued, adding: "What we're also trying to do is provide comprehensiveness in the way we promote and monetize content."

Starting in September, Google will offer video clips of several MTV Networks shows--"SpongeBob Squarepants," "Laguna Beach," and the MTV Video Music Awards--to a select group of AdSense publishers. Press reports identified Lyrics.com and Purevolume.com as sites that might host the MTV Networks clips, but a Google spokeswoman said the company hadn't finalized any decisions about sites.

MTV Networks is selling ads that will accompany the clips; revenue will be split between the publisher sites, MTV, and Google.

Eun said that in the future, when the syndication effort broadens, Google might sell ads for some of the clips--especially the ones created by consumers or small publishers that likely don't have an ad sales team. "You may or may not have enough scale to get distribution or spend money on marketing and promotion," he said. "What Google will do is allow you to get your content out in front of as many users as possible."

Publishers would be able to subscribe to video "channels," which would be categorized by their subject matter, and have those videos streamed onto their sites into Google-branded video players, Eun said.