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Where's YouTube? - April 12, 2007

The obvious suspect missing from today's mega-web-distribution announcement from CBS is YouTube.

Just about everyone who's anyone in online content distribution has signed on to carry CBS's ad-supported programming over the web, except for YouTube.

Even a few who aren't really anyone yet, like Joost and Sling Media, are on board. But YouTube is missing an unaccounted for.

So too, it should be mentioned, is the ScrewTube knock-off being planned by NBC/Universal and News Corp., but the Wall Street Journal reports the companies are still negotiating.

My guess is that CBS hasn't yet negotiated seriously with YouTube. Or, perhaps more accurately, today's announcement is the beginning of those negotiations. Before sitting down with the dominant player in online video the network wants to make sure it's content is already as widely distributed as possible on the web.

The main issues in those negotiations will be the and the division of the advertising revenue. YouTube knows it will have to share some advertising revenue with its content "partners," but it wants to sell the advertising itslef and share a piece of what it takes in with the content owner. CBS obviously has other ideas about the way that relationship should work. According to the Journal, CBS is asking for 90% of the ad revenue, with 10% going to the distribution "partner."

But at least CBS can be said to be approaching the situation as the business deal it ultimately is. Unlike its erstwhile sister company Viacom, it hasn't sued YouTube, and it hasn't tried to start a direct competitor, as NBC and News Corp. are trying. Whether YouTube ends up having filter content or not, it's still going to have a lot of eyeballs, which means content owners will have to do business with it eventually.

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