Viacom to Promote YouTube-like Features on Sites
Viacom is wasting no time in moving on from dealing with YouTube, as the company is planning to aggressively promote new functionality on ComedyCentral.com in the coming months, and others in the future.
Functionality will be provided directly from the site itself that allows users to embed and share videos much like the popular social video site. Users will be permitted to show the video for a period of one month after it is posted.
"Due to licensing agreements we're unable to keep this clip available on the site past the expiration date," the company said in a FAQ on the service.
The new functionality seems to suggest that negotiations and the subsequent agreement reached in October between YouTube and Viacom is officially dead. The content provider asked YouTube to remove any videos featuring content it owned earlier this month.
Relations between the two companies were never on firm ground: Viacom has had a history of disagreements with the site. The first occurred in May 2005, when the company asked YouTube to remove clips of movies that were produced by its Paramount Studios arm.
Viacom executives say that YouTube provides no better a solution to show videos that what could be done on their own sites. This seems to suggest that the social video site's other deals could be in jeopardy as well if those companies begin to see things Viacom's way.
With a minimum of advertising found on the company's pages, much of its revenue comes through these deals. Without them, YouTube would likely struggle to fund itself.
Either way, Viacom's actions have led to some unintended consequences, and humorous contradictions. For example, reports have been received of videos not owned by Viacom being removed as part of the order. For example, videos featuring a restaurant trip to Redbone's Restaurant in Massachusetts were removed.
The name of the establishment is quite similar to that of Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone.
On the other hand, while Viacom execs are trying to get their videos off YouTube, it seems Comedy Central's bloggers still have an affinity for the site.
In a Wednesday post to the Comedy Central Insider, a blogger used a video to illustrate a recent post.