Google looking at pay-TV options for YouTube
Google is reportedly considering selling TV episodes through YouTube. But unlike iTunes, the clips would be for streaming rather than downloading to a portable media player, raising serious questions about its potential audience.
To date Google has been relatively unsuccessful in its attempts to get TV networks to offer legal copies of full-length episodes on the site. Besides a deal with Spanish-language giant Hispanic, the current offerings are mainly limited to reruns such as Beverly Hills 90210.
With TV bosses either not taken with the concept of online streaming, or not persuaded that a share of advertising revenue will give them a suitable financial return, Google is now said to be looking at using Apple’s strategy of selling episodes ($1.99 on iTunes), which guarantees a set income per viewer to the networks.
The big flaw is that the YouTube sales would be for streaming only, and there’s little evidence of a widespread willingness to pay for content online, particularly TV shows. One of the main selling points of iTunes TV catalog (albeit one that Apple can’t express in such clear terms) is that the convenience of downloading an episode straight to a video-enabled iPod combined with the low price means many people see the price worth paying, even when illegal but free alternatives aren’t hard to find.
Google may also have misinterpreted exactly who is currently engaged in illegal downloads. A certain proportion will be U.S. citizens who don’t subscribe to premium channels or simply see downloads as another form of timeshifting device for free-to-air shows. But I suspect the vast majority of people downloading TV shows are from other countries where the episodes may not air for months if at all. Unfortunately for Google, it’s extremely unlikely they’ll be able to sell episodes to these customers.
One possibility that’s been raised is that Google might instead offer older shows which no longer air on TV. That might catch an audience, though the pricing would have to be very low in situations where YouTube has to compete with the convenience of a DVD box set.
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