Arts & Culture
The battle for YouTube
Published 25 September 2006
The site that struck fear into the TV industry is now facing a corporate takeover, reports Ben Dowell
Imagine you're working for a small independent television production company. You work hard at creating an exciting programme, assembling the ideas and the talent, thrashing out deals with broadcasters and sponsors. Then, just before your TV show is to be aired, up it pops on the internet TV site YouTube.
This site, to which millions of users can freely upload their own video material so that they can share it, is increasingly causing havoc in the television industry. It has also become one of the internet's biggest success stories, attracting almost 20 million visitors each month. Its growth outstrips even that of MySpace, Rupert Murdoch's newly acquired social networking website.
So, it is little wonder that MTV is rumoured to be sizing up a potential $1bn takeover. You Tube also recently announced that it hopes to offer every music video ever created, while remaining free of charge - a potential death knell for the music channel. With MTV's parent company, Viacom, still smarting after losing out on MySpace, a buy-up seems a logical option.
Angel Gambino, MTV Network UK's vice-president of commercial strategy, admits that the company is in an "acquisitive mood", and says it is "absolutely interested" in acquiring user-generated broadcast sites - though she refuses to confirm a specific interest in YouTube, citing corporate confidentiality.
YouTube was founded in a garage in February 2005 by three early employees of PayPal, the Californian e-commerce company. It is now an international brand. A hundred million clips are viewed daily on the website, with on average 65,000 new videos uploaded every 24 hours. The content encompasses everything from a snatch of footage from Popworld to a budding comedian in Tennessee or Teesside trying to grab the world's attention. "YouTube's innovation has been to make creating user-generated content incredibly easy," says Gambino. "You don't have to be a techie to use it."
What would a big-business takeover mean for an enterprise such as YouTube? Critics suggest that it could spell the end of its independent and subversive spirit. Initially, the site attracted the ire of big business: it has been the subject of a number of copyright-infringement lawsuits, some of which remain outstanding. Gambino insists that these will have to be "cleaned up" before any large company makes a bid, especially as potential litigants will be aware that an organisation of MTV's size has deep pockets.
However, others point out that the site's list of 25 "most watched" items shows it is already dominated by carefully placed viral advertising campaigns from big corporations. "It used to be about people making their own telly. You'd get cult YouTube people, like the old guy who would just ramble on, or the 'History of Dance' comedy sketch, which got about 30 million hits," says Paul Day, commercial director of At It Productions, an independent television company. "Now it is a lot more commercial."
The corporate world's attitude to the site has noticeably thawed over time. NBC initially made moves to sue YouTube for carrying allegedly copyrighted material - only for the commercial channel to abandon the legal action and announce an official "strategic partnership" to showcase promotional clips for its programmes, such as The Office.
The BBC has also latched on to the potential benefits of working with YouTube. Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology, says that he tries to make sure the BBC's programming content has a "presence" on YouTube without "giving too much away". He is sceptical, however, about the benefits of ac quisition.
"These new companies are fashionable now, but they may be a contemporary equivalent of the Rubik's Cube," he says. "It's all very ephemeral. The audience is very fickle. The BBC cannot be about buying these people up - it wouldn't fit with our brand. It would be a bit like the embarrassing uncle trying to dance at the wedding party."
But insiders at MTV say that close thought has been given to how the content and format of YouTube should be altered in the event of a takeover. Users will be allowed to continue generating the content, but the company is determined to "raise the bar" for quality of material and the way it is presented. They will want to find corporate sponsors, even if at present much of the unedited footage on YouTube includes people sitting on the toilet (would Estée Lauder be keen on that?). The anarchy of the site will be organised into new "mini-channels", regulated by the new owners, but still allowing the wacky content providers in.
The question is whether YouTube will lose its appeal for users once it is brought under a corporate banner. Gambino insists it will not, pointing out that MySpace user numbers doubled after the Murdoch takeover. "MTV is a lot less corporate than News Corporation, and they have done well with MySpace," she says. "While we have become more sophisticated, we are still sure about who we are - and that is taking risks and being edgy. People know that about us." But only time will tell if sites of YouTube's kind really can remain edgy and subversive once the big boys start to wave wads of dollar bills.
Vintage YouTube moments
Geriatric1927 was the online identity of a British pensioner who grumbled about his life in a series of five- to ten-minute autobiographical videos. His debut has been viewed more than 1.8 million times, and has sparked coverage by the BBC, GMTV and international networks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwJ7dkOwO2w
Lonelygirl15 was a coy teenager with repressive, religious parents and who engaged in a curiously innocent flirtation with her video editor. The implication was that at some point she would begin to strip, but her charming demeanour won her an army of fans frozen with suspense. With nearly 1.3 million views and more than 15,000 subscribers, she tantalised the international media: was she fact or fiction?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8_kagKfgsU
Slayerette won a hungry fan base by broadcasting "How to Eat" instruction videos from her computer desk. At the last count, 10,571 Americans had tuned in to learn about such English culinary specialities as beans on toast and Jaffa Cakes - of which the orange jelly should, according to Slayerette, be eaten last.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZf_Kze4iOE
Britney Spears bursting into tears on NBC is a popular classic - which does not reflect well upon YouTube users. One clip is only 14 seconds long and has been viewed nearly 8,000 times. Clearly, these viewers have no interest at all in what is causing her so much distress. Shocking, just shocking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J0te1250AE
Kyra Phillips, a CNN newsreader, fell victim to a technical blunder that quickly proved an online favourite worldwide. By leaving her mike on while in the lavatory, she unwittingly provided the soundtrack to George Bush's memorial speech for victims of Katrina. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIIrPvLn3Xg
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