Day eight and day nine were, for the most part, spent compiling databases of information that would later be used to either inform programming decisions or update statuses on social media sites. The highlight of day eight was meeting with the head of the BBC Worldwide, Top Gear, and BBC Earth Youtube channels. We had a long and casual talk about how promotion is done through the site, how money is made off of ads, and how it acquires content. The latter was the most informative as there was plenty of obstacles to acquiring content that revolved mostly around copyright issues and contracts. She also explained how Youtube is shifting towards original programming and the use of Channels with regular programming. Youtube is throwing money at a few traditional broadcasters to produce shows exclusively for Youtube.
At the end of the meeting she showed me the tool the BBC uses to find copyrighted material that users have posted. Video ID allows the content owners at the BBC to find copyrighted material and then decide upon how to deal with it. They can request the video be deleted, leave the video as is, or even set up ads on the video and share the revenue with Youtube. For the most part, the BBC choses to leave the video if it is either a montage to a particular show or under 20-30 seconds. Rarely do they request the video be blocked.
Such blocking of videos represents the conflict between the original amateur driven community of Youtube and its top-down corporate ambitions. There's no doubt that they need to monetize the business to run their servers, and they've taken their cue from traditional mass media - advertising. Even their move towards Channels and original programming is evidence of what I find a rather unforeseen move back towards more traditional models of mass-media.
At the end of the meeting she showed me the tool the BBC uses to find copyrighted material that users have posted. Video ID allows the content owners at the BBC to find copyrighted material and then decide upon how to deal with it. They can request the video be deleted, leave the video as is, or even set up ads on the video and share the revenue with Youtube. For the most part, the BBC choses to leave the video if it is either a montage to a particular show or under 20-30 seconds. Rarely do they request the video be blocked.
Such blocking of videos represents the conflict between the original amateur driven community of Youtube and its top-down corporate ambitions. There's no doubt that they need to monetize the business to run their servers, and they've taken their cue from traditional mass media - advertising. Even their move towards Channels and original programming is evidence of what I find a rather unforeseen move back towards more traditional models of mass-media.
No comments:
Post a Comment