YouTube-UMG Tie-Up: Behind the Scene Story
Universal Music Group (UMG) and Google’s video-sharing site YouTube are
working together to offer a blended service, VEVO. The plan is to
provide UMG's music video content using YouTube technology and community
support. Others are also fast and furious. The action taking place in
the emerging tech-entertainment convergence market is just fit for making a
Hollywood blockbuster.
By
Rakesh Raman
Today,
YouTube is facing some serious competition from new players like Hulu.
The number of Hulu video viewers in the major U.S. market went up 42% in
February 2009, though YouTube still leads with 41% of online videos
viewed and just under 100 million unique viewers, says researcher
comScore. Among the other
leading players in the race are Fox, Viacom,
Turner, and Disney.
As the
rivalry is hotting up, it becomes imperative for YouTube to create a new
position for itself in the market. It’s doing exactly that with a series
of tie-ups. It’s equally important for entertainment behemoths to
leverage the power and reach of online media.
Last
year, for example,
Discovery Communications and YouTube had announced
nine YouTube Channels, featuring a collection of clips from Discovery's
family of network brands. Tailoring content for the global YouTube
community, Discovery will also roll out a series of targeted
international Channels showcasing localized and native language content
for specific regions.
Also,
MGM Worldwide Digital Media (MGM) and YouTube have signed a multiple
channel commitment to begin with "Impact," a channel for VOD (video on
demand) action programming and "American Gladiators", a channel which
showcases highlights and full episodes from the classic show. MGM's
"Impact" was launched as a VOD offering in partnership with Comcast. The
"Impact" channel on YouTube is an extension of the brand dedicated
exclusively to action programming to promote the MGM "Impact" channel.
Now,
online video content is not restricted to PCs only. Rather, it’s slowly
invading consumers’ living rooms to come on TVs.
Research firm ABI Research figures
online video viewing is shifting from
PC to TV screen. And there are expected to be nearly one billion viewers
by 2013. It also observes that while today’s consumer is most likely to
watch online video on the PC screen, over time an increasing number of
people will watch over-the-top video delivered to their TVs. This
continued trend toward TV-viewed online video will help drive overall
adoption, as the number of online video viewers grows from 563 million
at the end of 2008 to 941 million by 2013.
...Continued
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