Two weeks after Viacom ordered Google to take down more than 100,000 allegedly copyrighted videos from YouTube, the media giant is about to sign a content deal with Joost, the Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight. Joost, the P2P online television service soon to launch from the founders of Skype, is purportedly aimed to challenge traditional TV networks more than it is YouTube. User generated content will not appear on Joost. The company has put together a number of smaller deals, including one with Warner, but a Viacom deal would be its biggest yet.
Though near consensus opinion credits copyrighted content as the foundation of YouTube’s success, the competition may be less direct today than some might think. Original and user generated content now plays a very important roll in making YouTube thrive. OK Go, Lonelygirl15 and countless other YouTube-born stars have taken on a life of their own.
Viacom pulled out of an effort by major broadcast stations to build a YouTube rival in December, effectively bringing that effort to a halt. While moving back into safer territory online (if the unlaunched Joost can be called safer) can’t be the company’s ideal solution. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told the WSJ that this partnership was evidence that the company is more than willing to work with online distributors who protect their copyright.
It would be a real loss to the world if the two tiers of creativity, professional and user generated, were forever bifurcated in different distribution channels. YouTube has signed a number of distribution deals with music studios and others, but its viability as a distribution channel for copyrighted content appears to have decreased since being acquired by Google and failing to bring to market an effective copyright protection technology. The emergence of viable online alternatives like Joost could spell trouble for any hopes that we will soon be able to watch Beavis & Butthead and Chad Vader all in one convenient location.
With Joost not planning to include any user generated content on it’s service, just movies and tv shows, it may well become the legitimate place to watch tv online. But that may not necessarily be a bad thing for YouTube and a good thing for Joost.
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out. Because on the web just when you think you’re certain that a concept will take off, it’s not always the case.
Thanx
for that tip. Just applied for the Beta test Program
just a note: this is p2p technology, not web 2.0
hi, I just make a signature on this site to show that I have come here.
Love….
由佳小阪
http://yukakosa...a.blogspot.com/
RE: “It would be a real loss to the world if the two tiers of creativity, professional and user generated, were forever bifurcated in different distribution channels.” I disagree… If/when I am looking for grass roots creativity I don’t want to have to sort through corporate crap TV and stupid product placements, marketing hype and consumerism motives. I say put all the big media stuff in one place so it doesn’t bury the indie.
-Chris Comella, Founder
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I think the key point is YouTube can’t find a proper way to share the benefits with the Media Companies. So Youtube can’t make a deal with Viacom.
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I think it is inevitable to seperate user generated and professional content for an online television service. That is “not a real loss to the world” – rather a major gain. Because despite the convenience of having one website for watching everything: There is so much needless and low quality content out there; and most of us will probably be really glad to watch some professionals again: No phone experiments, no home videos, no pong shots, no “takes a picture of himself every day”.
Just as a pointer to user behaviour on the net – I long ago gave up on Youtube as a way to watch episodes of tv programs. For that (until recently at least) I used DailyMotion. However, since DM just put a 20 min upload limit in place, I’ve switched to Veoh. Why did I ditch YouTube? Actually, I’m not interested in user generaed content, you need to wade through tons of it to find anythign interesting. If I have 30 mins to kill at work, I want to watch the sitcom I missed last week, or watch an old episode of something I haven’t seen for years. There is a huge difference between User generated and Professional content and so 2 discrete networks makes perfect sense. Also, sites which just show tv shows actually dont need a community element. As for the business model, who knows, I guess broadcasters can embed advertising, or have blip ads, cause I honestly dont know who clicks on the adsense on a typical site like these.
As someone who runs a site focusing on using video from YouTube and others, I think you can have both formats together. Professional and user generated content can be equally compelling. The problem is the signal to noise ratio. There are lots of great clips on YouTube, the problem is how to sift through a million videos of dross to find the gold.
So that’s hopefully what I’m providing with WatchThisVid.com- attractive recommendations.
Actually I think it makes sense to leave them separated too. I suspect most non-YouTubers would prefer not to have to sift through loads of jackass (the movie) style crap to get to Lost, 24, The Sopranos, etc. I know I’d prefer it that way.
This is a great development for the Joost platform. Expect to see similar deals announce in the next 3-6 months.
This is funny… The commenters above who like to watch big media / TV at low res over the net call social media and UGC “crap.” This shows you that they need something off YouTube so they can get their fix of Desperate Housewives. This goes a long way towards ending the debate. YouTube for YOU (i.e. UGC) and Joost or whoever for TV shows. Any more debating on this thread is going to be like winning a gold medal in the…
For what it’s worth, OK Go wasn’t made by Youtube. They already had moderate success on MTV, radio, etc. They just leveraged the platform for more success, so they’re really not a youtube-made star.
And who is to say what is more convinient? Having one big player is not necessary all that best. Imagine in 5 years, all video comes from YouTube. They decide to 20 minute ads into their videos and we will have little choice but watch them. No, I would rather see others fighting hand in hand.
Marshall, I see your point but would not worry too much about Google and YouTube. I do believe they have the advantage of first mover and tons of cash to buy or develop out of any content deficiency they may face.
The spotlight is on YouTube with many players all of a sudden waking up to the gigantic status of YouTube. I believe what you are seeing now are the natural reactions of jealous competitors. In the end though, I think Google and YouTube will be ok.
I wonder what their going to do about the Youtube situation or just going to become competition since youtube can’t decide which way is right???
Regarding the possibility of UGC and professional content being split up b/w distribution channels; I think it’s inevitable. The growing UGC realm is large and unable to be easily maneuvered as an entity. While the lines between UGC and professional content will continue to be blurred in the coming years, just as with music, the long tail of video will have to be easily searched and broken up into smaller chunks for easy digestion. If YouTube doesn’t work out some kind of deal, it’s even more likely that the two kinds of video content will be split.
Well congrats to Joost, but agreed with Marshall about bifurcation. The line between user-created and professional-created has been blurred by technology on both the production and distribution ends of the process. The economics of different business models have not kept pace, however.
Unfortunately, free/viral distribution doesn’t lend itself to an easily quantifiable business case – hence the media giant’s reluctance to play in the space. When value comes exclusively from control, loss of control *is* loss of value.
IMHO, bifurcation is inevitable in the medium term until monetization strategies and metrics have a chance to catch up with the breakneck pace of technology.
SLANTTed view of this story:
http://slantt.n...deal-with-joost
I signed up over a month ago for a beta invite and still no word.. Anyone got an invite they can send me? want to try it out and blog about it on a new site upcoming within the month.
Can send invite to damodt@gmail.com
Thanks
User Generated media is reality TV. Which, if you haven’t noticed, is a fad that is beginning to fade. I’m not saying that user generated media doesn’t have a future — we’ll just see this frothy hype flatten for awhile.
Hold me to it.
J | http://www.sumolabs.com
ps. YoutTube paying people for media is a step in the right direction to get quality content.
I hope Skype goes public.
Oh, and if you have Joost invites to share, please post here at my forum: http://forums.marvngrad.com/
If you need an invite, check there.
Check out http://www.chooseandwatch.com/ too – it has similar concept like Joost
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I think you guys are underestimating the social aspect of YouTube. I don’t believe Joost will allow deep linking or extrenal imbedded players in sites. They won’t have comments on the same page as the video. Joost is designed to deliver IPTV using a P2P network – their UI is targeted for that. YouTube is designed to share short video clips that can be deep linked or imbedded in other websites. I imagine Joost will force users to sign up before they can watch video. This tracking information will probably be tied to the ads that the user will see – that cannot be skipped. Joost will show a 44 minute television show with 16 minutes of ads. This effectively kills it as YouTube competition.
How many people are willing to sit through ads? I think people would rather pay than have to sit and wait for an ad to finish. Well not unless they made 3 to 5 second ads that quickly got to the point.
And has Joost has announced that they will definitely not include this “bifurcation” withiun itself? That is, user generated content easily accessible within their interface, but separated from “pro” content (until a video proves itself as pro quality based on viewership or $$ whatever).
A few things about Joost and YouTube:
1. Joost will offer the ability for content producers to upload their content in the future (this will not include most UGC, only a subset of the highest quality)
2. Joost fulfills the IPTV gap for Internet users. It’s the most credible platform to date that makes IPTV a reality online. Best of all, it’s free. No hardware to buy and no subscription required.
3. Joost and YouTube are complimentary. Joost is the Internet’s software-based set-top box, and YouTube is “everything else”. People will watch Joost for great, full-screen video content and YouTube for entertainment. They are powerful mediums in their own right, and anyone who dares to compare the two are insane.
I say we’ve got it damn good with the best of both worlds — UGC w/YouTube and PGC w/Joost. I no longer see a need for satellite and cable television subscriptions.
I agree with Ronald.
Now all *we* need is and EASY way to bring UGC and PGC into the living room. While there are various options out there today, none of them are really that easy for the average joe (save for the not all that useful VOD from cable/tivo). Watching this stuff on the computer just won’t cut it long term.
The best I’ve experienced so far (from a user experience point of view) is plugging my notebook into my plasma TV and streaming the HD Fox shows they have on MySpace. (not a solution for the average joe, though)
It would be interesting to see how Joost monetises their presence online through their IPTV platform.
Joost has the potential to be the ultimate affiliate marketing/pay per click/commissions/sales distribution beneficiary in the IPTV space. Integrate Skype with Joost and you have a powerful telcoms/content provider. Integrate EBay with Joost and you have your shopping network. Form key partnerships with companies in distribution (eg. UPS or FedEx etc), product distribution, and service delivery and Joost becomes another competitor to Amazon and Wal Mart…unless of course they partner up with Amazon and Wal Mart
As broadband costs decrease and speeds increase over time to the consumer, consumers will benefit from the power of Joost. If Joost forms partnerships with NetFlix/Blockbuster/Paramount/Fox/Sony to stream REAL movies on demand, all of a sudden you’ve bypassed the blue-ray HD standards debate. This is assuming that Joost is running perfectly.
Mike, PGC intot he living room? Um…its called a TV (at least here in the UK)
Chrisco – checked out BuzzPal….good luck….hope you have a day job.
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@ mike, that stuff is coming.
I think it’s interesting how Google’s getting a little bit of a beating at the moment, but I’m suspicious of how well Joost will do in the market – I think there’s a lot of fanfare and hooplah solely because it involves somebody from Skype and not necessarily because they’ve come up with something novel. The industry on the video side has been migrating towards blending professional with user driven content, particularly as things develop on the back end of the tech behind it all. User driven content’s great but tricky and annoying to monetize – of course sites will want to incorporate alternatives for that alone.
If there’s one thing Web 2.0 has proven is that building something that attracts traffic online isn’t easy – even for the highly celebrated, seasoned tech gurus that come into the market.
I don’t doubt there’s a place for Joost or that they’ll do fine, but I’m not sold on theirs being the killer in video. Not yet. Way bigger players will come into the market, traditional media, etc. I think it’ll be some time before anybody sees how things play out.
I have to say now that I have my beta invite that Joots that I’m truly excited about it. The interface is very clean and easy to use and the video is clean. It should be truly revolutionary.
Ross
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