Next Up for YouTube Next
March 14, 2011
Google’s umbrella just grew a little larger. “YouTube Buys NextNewNetworks, Launches YouTube Next” gives a glimpse of the video-sharing host’s latest move: YouTube Next. This incarnation is intended to prop up creator development while increasing partner growth. Built off of NextNewNetwork’s model of “developing, packaging and building audiences for original web video programming”, YouTube is going so far as to even stamp its brand name on certain programs.
I am all for cutting out the restriction-wielding, high-dollar middleman, at least as much as feasible. The introduction of new services, specifically like Amazon VOD, empowers the small video creator and offers a yet unseen accessibility to an expansive audience. We are beginning to see the fall of the movie production and distribution industries as we know them, adding more tumbleweeds to the desolate landscape of recorded songs and printed words. The signs had been emerging with the advent of the minor players, and now Google is throwing its weight behind the endeavor. It will be interesting to see the veritable rainbow of protests from the MPAA as their long-awaited irrelevance solidifies. I sense some long and protracted litigation on the horizon.
There is speculation that being spurned by Sheen’s choice of UStream to broadcast his trifling monologue over its own service has shaken Google, prompting the purchase of this new asset. I maintain that their ocular dollar signs erupted and Google just wants a larger piece of the video action. And that Charlie Sheen is not important. Per the article:
“Google announced the acquisition today, saying that the acquisition was part of a larger effort to support content partners, of which there are more than 15,000 worldwide. Over 2010, the number of partners raking in more than $1,000 a month increased by 300% and YouTube is looking to push that number even higher with YouTube Next.”
NextNewNetworks will be delivering its adopted parent six million subscribers and its partners potentially exponential growth. Thus, the positive effects of this transaction seem to be merely coincidental. If Google is willing to pitch the people a bone in exchange for an extra cent, perhaps at day’s end this is a symbiotic relationship.
Sarah Rogers, March 14, 2011
Freebie
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