YouTube Launching iTunes Killer [Silicon Alley Insider]
If the speculation is correct, Google may soon be getting into the paid content business with streamed television shows on YouTube. Peter Kafka, managing editor of Silicon Alley Insider, reports that Google has reached out to the television industry hoping to strike a deal to stream television shows for a fee. Kafka reports that Google is currently in discussions with networks and studios about a distribution model.
This article suggests that Google's move might be directed at Apple, which allows iTunes users to download television shows for a fee. Apple's iTunes provides the users with a digital copy of the television shows, while Google's proposed model would only provide a streamed version. Hulu - which offers users streamed, ad-supported television shows - might have the most reason for concern about Google's move, due to the larger existing user base of YouTube and the potential for a paid model to increase content producers' revenues.
How is Google's entry into the paid streaming video arena likely to impact traditional television viewing? Probably not much, if recent experience with web video is any indication. The last Nielsen Three Screens Report indicated that despite the rapidly growing consumption of web video, traditional television viewing continues to substantially outpace web viewing, with web video actually having the potential to be additive to traditional viewing.
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