This article from Sept. 10 reveals that YouTube is changing up the content of its Web site and is now allowing longer videos to be viewed. The reasons for this is primarily because users are becoming more and more used to watching television shows online.
Many television shows are available for viewing through their home stations Web site and viewers watch them religiously if they miss a show. YouTube is looking to offer these programs on their Web site for viewing with limited interruption in order to keep up with the competition that these sites have presented.
Jordan Hoffner, the director of content partnerships for YouTube recognizes that to keep up with these other sites YouTube will have to start offering longer videos. “This is what the users want,” Hoffner said.
Offering full length videos not only gives YouTube a way to keep up with competition, but it also allows them to see longer commercial advertising spots in between shows. This will allow the company to make a lot of revenue due to the fact that they can place an advertisement before, during and after each long show.
Right now the only thing preventing them from hitting the ground full force seems to be copyright issues. Major media companies such as Viacom, are already suing the company for a copyright violation.
Despite that, YouTube added the loner video component to their Web Site last week. I think this was a smart choice for the company. They should rebuttal the major corporation’s accusations about copyright laws with the fact that before YouTube and the internet people would TIVO or record all the programs they knew they would miss anyway. There is a copyright issue there too.
Find the full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/technology/internet/11tube.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
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3 comments:
Colleen,
Instead of just summarizing the article, tell us what you thought about sourcing, fairness, organization, and accuracy. For instance, this article was devoid of any "common man/woman" sources. What do customers think about this move by Google to offer longer videos via Youtube? What do they think about advertisements joining Youtube videos for the first time?
I like the idea of YouTube making this move, but I feel like the article was just a regurgitation of facts. There really were no human voices coming through in the piece. I think I read a partial quote from someone, but I can't for the life of me think of what they said off the top of my head.
You'd think with YouTube being a part of so many people's lives that they could find real people to talk about this issue. You know people would want to talk about.
Do you think there is an optimum ratio for commercial to free viewing?
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