NBC gets into bed with YouTube

Written by Brett Thomas

June 28, 2006 | 14:56

Tags: #content #internet #itunes #video #youtube

Companies: #nbc

The world of Internet Television is a booming business, one that many of the major networks have ignored. Of course, there's always one that goes against the grain...

NBC have been releasing their television content on iTunes since December of 2005, to some startling success. Their chief marketing officer, John Miller, has recently confirmed over 6 million sales since that date. With such a strong budding business model, then, it's no shock that NBC would like to help bolster it a little more.

Enter: YouTube, where individual members upload their personal videos (of course, only legal ones, right?) for anyone to see. NBC are proposing hosting their own pages on the network to show trailers (not whole shows) of upcoming episodes that one could watch on TV or buy on iTunes, as a further advertising measure. YouTube currently gets over 20 million unique users per month (13 million just in the US), beating out GoogleVideo (at 7.3 million total) by well over double.

Of course, NBC acknowledges that nobody will go look at it just for promotional clips. So, they hope to offset that trend by making the YouTube content unique by offering some backstage content, behind the scenes footage of favorite shows, and even allowing fan uploads for contests.

"The distinction between television and video is becoming murkier and murkier," Miller said. "Rather than putting our heads in the sand and saying this doesn't exist, we're trying to jump in and embrace it."

Personally, I'm amazed at the sales figures from iTunes alone. But what about the YouTube impact? Would you go visit to watch what they're offering? What could they offer to attract your attention? Tune in to our forums and let us know!
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