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Google, MTV Sign Video Deal

Posted on: Friday, 22 September 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post Staff Writer

Google Inc. and MTV Networks Co. signed a deal yesterday that will allow bloggers and other Web site operators to post MTV's video clips while earning online advertising revenue.

The deal will give Google immediate access to premium content from the cable network's stable of shows such as Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and MTV's "Laguna Beach" on the expanding Google Video site.

The revenue-sharing idea, which is set to launch later this month, piggybacks off of Google's already popular AdSense program, which allows Web site owners to cash in on their popularity by running ads on their sites that are placed there by Google. In the case of the MTV deal, every time someone clicks to watch a video off blogger's site, the blogger will get a cut of the advertising revenue made.

In exchange, MTV expands its online audience and Google increases traffic to its video site, the companies said.

"This gives us access to top video content, plus a new source of revenue for our content partners," said David Eun, vice president of content partnerships for Google.

Google, which already competes with dozens of online video sites that offer everything from homemade videos to pay-per-view episodes of television shows, would not disclose how many Web sites would be allowed to run the MTV content off of their sites as part of the test run of the product.

But the company is already talking to other major networks about similar deals and will use participants in the trial to study the effectiveness of advertising -- how long a video ad should be and whether the placement of the ad affects the viewer's experience, for example.

"It's showing how the Web is continuing to rewrite the business models for individuals and small businesses" by allowing them to claim a piece of the growing online ad revenue, said Oren Etzioni, a professor of computer science at the University of Washington.

Google needs deals of this kind to stay competitive with Web sites such as MSN and Yahoo, which have content deals, as well as AOL, whose parent company is media giant Time Warner Inc., Etzioni said.

Reported By TechNews.com, http://www.TechNews.com

(20060808/WIRES /)

Source: Newsbytes

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