Univision se hace amigos con YouTube

Univision Communications and Google's YouTube have cut a deal to put much of the Spanish broadcaster's content on the video website. If you're looking to catch up on the network's popular telenovelas there, though, you're out of luck.

Until now, Univision has encapsulated its content on the company's website, Univision.com. The move suggests the television broadcaster recognizes it needs to cast a wider net to draw viewers -- and to reel in more advertising revenue -- as audiences increasingly turn to the Web for news and entertainment. 

The network's most popular prime-time shows, the over-the-top telenovelas produced by Mexico's media colossus, Grupo Televisa, will not be included on the YouTube channel. To do that, Univision would have to negotiate terms with Televisa, and the two companies have had a contentious relationship. Shows that will be available on YouTube include "El Gordo y la Flaca" ("The Scoop and the Skinny") and the morning news show "Despierta America."

Kevin Conroy, president of Univision Interactive Media, said that even without the Televisa shows, the Univision offerings would be significant. "Honestly, people will be very surprised and very excited by the amount and the quality" of the clips and shows on YouTube, he said. He added that the YouTube deal was noteworthy because it represents Univision's first foray into Internet syndication. He declined to say whether a deal with online video site Hulu was on the horizon.

The Univision content will begin appearing on YouTube early next year.

Neither Conroy nor YouTube would detail terms of their arrangement. Conroy did say that Univision would "keep the majority of the advertising revenue."

YouTube said the Univision pact was "one of the most comprehensive partnerships for full-length programming signed to date." That's because the major U.S. networks, including NBC, ABC, Fox and Viacom, have been cool to YouTube, preferring to control their content -- and the ad revenue that flows with it -- on their websites and on Hulu, which is owned by NBC Universal, Walt Disney and Fox parent company News Corp. Viacom, which owns MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central, went further and brought a copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube. That case is pending.

-- Meg James

YouTube gets 'Taxi Driver' from Sony's Crackle

You lookin' at YouTube?

Continuing its slow journey to add premium Hollywood content, YouTube has just posted its second major studio film to the site, the 1976 classic "Taxi Driver."

The film, when went on the Google-owned viral video site today and will be available for just a week, comes from Sony Pictures' Crackle video website, which also streamed "Ghostbusters" on YouTube for a week in August. Like that film, "Tax Driver" is playing under a number of limitations intended to benefit Sony: It steams in Crackle's own video player with prominent branding for the site and the video advertising is sold by the studio, which gets most of the revenue.

That hasn't stopped YouTube from spotlighting the film. Beyond featuring "Taxi Driver" on its heavily trafficked home page, YouTube promoted the movie with a series of clues on its Twitter feed yesterday and with a post on its blog.

The company is clearly hoping to convince both consumers and content owners that it's a viable outlet for premium content. Despite significant efforts to attract such content, YouTube has few television episodes and films from major studios. Advertisers have proven to be much more comfortable with Hollywood content than user-submitted videos.

Sony streams "Ghostbusters," "Taxi Driver" and more than 200 other films owned by the studio on Crackle. The partnership with YouTube seems intended primarily to promote Crackle to users of the much more popular Google-owned site.

-- Ben Fritz

Photo: Robert DeNiro in "Taxi Driver." Credit: Beitia Archives

YouTube and Warner Music reach deal on music videos

Music videos from Green Day, Metallica and Madonna will begin reappearing on YouTube by the end of the year as Google Inc.'s giant online video site struck an agreement with Warner Music Group.

Warner videos disappeared from YouTube last December amid a contract dispute over how much the music videos were worth. Warner Music Chairman and Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. became personally involved in negotiations to help strike a deal that YouTube described as "sustainable."

Warner Music, which was the first of the major labels to strike a deal with YouTube, will be able to sell advertising surrounding its artists' work and split the proceeds with the website. The label can also identify its songs on user-created videos, and make money on these videos. 

Chris Maxcy, YouTube's head of music partnerships, declined to say whether Warner received any advances against future revenue or discuss financial terms of the multiyear agreement.

"We’re pleased to announce that we’ve reached a new and expanded agreement with Google and its YouTube subsidiary that will bring Warner Music Group content back to the service as early as the end of the year," the label said in a statement.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Lead singer of Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong, performs during a concert in Lisbon. Credit: Jose Sena Goulao / EPA

YouTube, movie studios in talks on streaming content for fee

Google Inc.'s YouTube may become the next window in the Hollywood distribution chain.

The video-sharing site is in early talks with Warner Bros., Sony Pictures and Lionsgate about streaming movies online to its users for a rental fee, people close to the discussions say.

This is a major shift in strategy by some of the major Hollywood studios, which have been wary of showcasing their new movies online out of concern that it could hurt the value of their DVDs. But now that the DVD business is cratering, a new school of thought is emerging that the Internet will become a friend rather than a foe.

There are still hurdles to overcome, including pricing and the timing of when movies would be put on YouTube. Warner Bros. already releases movies on DVD and on video-on-demand at the same time so adding YouTube to the mix probably won't be a big deal. But other studios still have separate windows for DVD and VOD releases, so figuring out whether YouTube would become its own window or part of the VOD window would need to be resolved. 

Pricing would be similar to VOD and iTunes, which is about $3.99 per movie and the split would 70% for the studio and 30% for YouTube. The talks were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The service may being to undergo internal testing at Google in the next several weeks.

-- Joe Flint

YouTube strikes a deal with Time Warner for content

"Gossip Girl" is headed to YouTube -- legally this time.

Time Warner Inc. has signed an online video distribution deal with Google Inc.'s YouTube to furnish clips of movies, television programs and news content from Warner Bros. Television, which produces numerous shows including "Gossip Girl" and Ellen DeGeneres' daytime talk show, and Turner Broadcasting, parent of CNN, Cartoon Network and other cable channels.

The agreement deepens the relationship between the dominant online video site and the media giant, which has been programming an HBO-branded channel since early last year to promote "True Blood," "Hung" and "Entourage." Time Warner will be able to create separate channels for its brands and work with YouTube to woo brand advertisers.

"We're always happy to get a big media company on the platform," said Jordan Hoffner, YouTube's head of premium content partnerships. "They're hitting our sweet spot with short-form content."

"We expect to improve our ability to monetize this short-form content through new and creative advertising initiatives," said Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes.

Both Time Warner and YouTube hailed the agreement as representing an opportunity to cash in on video clips, which has long presented a challenge for the site Google acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said on a recent earnings call that YouTube would be profitable in the “not too distant future.”

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: "Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester appears at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, held at Gibson Amphitheatre. Credit: Jason Merritt / Getty Images

Report: YouTube losing less money than thought, happy Hollywood doesn't know it

In the entertainment business, it's customary practice to publicly boast that almost every new movie and TV show is a hit.

If a new report from IT consulting firm RampRate (not your usual savvy analysts of showbiz, but bear with us) is right, Silicon Valley's biggest company might be taking just the opposite approach.

RampRate's study, titled "YouTube: Google's Phantom Loss Leader," claims that the No. 1 video website is losing far less than the widely cited $470 million per year figure from an April report by Credit Suisse Equity Research. Using a different analysis of the bandwidth and other tech costs needed to operate YouTube, Ramprate estimates the site's losses this year will be a much more narrow $174.2 million.

So why isn't YouTube owner Google making a stink? We all know any movie executive wouldn't keep silent if a report claimed his or her project lost more money than it actually did (or even as much).

RampRate offers an intriguing, and plausible, theory: "Any appearance of profits leads to more draconian revenue share demands from partners and additional lawsuits from owners of unlicensed content. An apparent loss deters this behavior, making it eminently advisable for Google to let the rumors of YouTube's losses grow and compound."

Translation: If YouTube was known to be losing less money, or even close to making a profit, then the "sharks" in Hollywood might demand higher payments for their content, both legitimate and pirated, posted on the site. The longer Google can hold off sharing more revenue with content suppliers, the more money it makes on YouTube.

There's no way, of course, to reliably determine YouTube's financials since Google doesn't break out the results. And the circumstantial evidence is mixed. YouTube recently launched a "shows" section in an effort to get more television episodes and movies to compete against Hulu. The only way to increase its offerings, however, would be to pay more money, not less.

On the other hand, unless and until somebody figures out a profitable model for Web video advertising, YouTube and competitors like Hulu are left with much less revenue than their television counterparts. For now, Google might like the idea of content providers believing it's losing nearly half a billion dollars a year as it tries to help build a digital platform that could benefit studios.

As far as conspiracy theories go, it's not too far out by Hollywood standards.

Update (June 17, 5:40 PM): YouTube's losses may be shrinking fast. In a report released today, Nielsen said that YouTube is the top entertainment site on the Web and carried about 24% of all online display ads for the consumer goods category. The industry is estimated to have spent $156.2 million for online marketing in the first quarter of 2009.

— Ben Fritz

Photo: Episodes of "Alf" on YouTube. Credit: YouTube.