Youtube Strikes Content Deals

YouTube Inc. struck deals with CBS and two major music labels Monday as the popular video-sharing Web site races to befriend content providers and avoid copyright-infringement lawsuits.

The separate agreements with CBS, Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment come less than a month after YouTube reached a deal with Warner Music Group Corp. On Friday, Google Inc. was reported to be in talks to acquire the video site for $1.6 billion.

Associated Press - YouTube strikes content deals

(Josh Bernoff, an analyst at market tracker Forrester Research), who just last week put out a report doubting investor interest in YouTube because of potential lawsuits, changes his tune if Google gets involved. “YouTube gets access to Google engineering that could, at the flick of a button, automatically filter out copyrighted material,” he says. “The potential lawsuits go away if the technology problem is solved. And you can assume that any deal is contingent on making that happen.”

USAToday - Investors like idea of Google-YouTube

YouTube does not disclose how much of the material on its pages is pirated by users or what percentage of YouTube’s traffic is attracted by pirated materials. YouTube serves up 100 million videos a day to viewers.

What is clear is that legally obtained video clips from big media companies could potentially command big advertising dollars, unlike homemade videos also found on the site.

Reuters - YouTube’s success lies with satisfying big media