In a recent ars technical post “How Viacom can sink the pirates”, Anders Bylund argues that content producers are tackling the problem of content distribution, ownership and control from the wrong angle. While at the Seoul Digital Forum 2008, Sumner Redstone—who controls the twin media giants Viacom and CBS—came down hard on YouTube, calling the site out for piracy and demanding that ISPs and web sites take greater action to police content. Bylund challenges Redstone’s call to action asking:
Is it really fair to ask the service providers to beat piracy on behalf of the content producers?
According to Bylund, the best way to “subjugate these rebels” is “with the tools of free enterprise.” Content owners are increasingly aware that they need to create their own new, controlled distribution channels online. To overcome piracy content producers need a superior business model that takes into consideration how consumers choose where to view online videos; they consider price, quality and convenience. While content owners can’t beat the YouTube “price” for content, their video sites should play up the quality of the videos they showcase—a distinct advantage over YouTube. As for convenience, the new distribution channels should aim to provide a complete consumer experience; if a site offers premium content with state-of-the-art browsing and search capabilities, odds are users will remain engaged.
That is once you get them to your site. If your clip shows up first as a YouTube video in a Google search result, you still risk loosing brand control and consumer attention. The user may finish viewing your clip then move on to more of your content—or perhaps skateboarding dog videos—within YouTube. In order to fully compete, content owners must factor in the “convenience” of search. Video SEO is the key to driving site traffic because it enhances the discoverability of video content across the major search engines, where many consumers navigate the Web. And when quality content is more discoverable, content owners can set the terms of content consumption through ad models and brand management on their own sites. This way, everybody wins—content owners, viewers, and advertisers alike. And YouTube? Well, it will always be my pick for skateboarding dog videos.
