• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, February 2, 2007

Negotiations between Viacom and Google's YouTube have faltered, prompting Viacom to demand today that YouTube remove about 100,000 clips from its site.

"After months of ongoing discussions with YouTube and Google, it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users," the company stated Friday.

Viacom added that it's asking for "fair compensation" for its clips, including material like routines by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart that users have uploaded to the site.

Viacom also stated that Google's recent decision to include YouTube clips in the results pages of the Google Video search engine "compounds this issue" -- though why that should be the case is unclear. YouTube already receives far more traffic than Google Video, and YouTube's own search engine is remarkably proficient at finding clips.

As early as last fall, reports circulated that Viacom asked YouTube to remove clips from the video sharing site. But much of that material remained available, as Viacom and YouTube held talks. Meanwhile, other companies -- including CBS and Sony BMG -- struck deals with YouTube.

Now that discussions seem to have fallen apart, Viacom's going on the offensive. But it's going to be in for a long fight if it expects to keep its clips off YouTube. Even if YouTube removes every one of those 100,000 video clips today, there's little to stop other users from uploading similar clips tomorrow.

Yes, Viacom can hire an army of lawyers to police YouTube and send take-down notices each and every time they find another clip. But at some point, the company will have to balance that cost against whatever damage they think they're suffering from the YouTube clips. Of course, it's debatable that they're being harmed at all, given the added exposure they get from YouTube.

Viacom apparently believes it's losing out on potential ad revenue -- even though, for now, YouTube isn't running pre-roll alongside the clips. Of course, Viacom can argue that if clips weren't available on YouTube, consumers would have to go to Viacom's own sites to see them. But there's also a very real chance that Web users would simply stop watching Viacom clips online if they couldn't find them at YouTube.