I stole this headline from Jeff Jarvis. He is talking about Fox News:
FoxNews takes the Bill Clinton interview down from YouTube. Fools. They would be getting a whole new audience. They’d be even more part of the conversation.
I agree. Fools. One thing is that taking it down is a fight that they can’t win.Here is the results for the search “bill clinton fox news” on YouTube right now. And that’s only YouTube. Once it’s out there you can’t stop it.
But Fox is a commercial company. Of course they want to take their content down from YouTube. How on earth are they going to earn money from this distribution channel?
They want people to watch the clip on www.foxnews.com. In their own web-TV. A web TV with some problems:
- less accessible
- no discussion
- not easy to link directly to a clip
- not possible to include the clip on web pages where people discuss this interview
- problems with less used browsers and operating systems
After emailing myself the link from the FoxNews player I was able to provide you with the direct link to that clip – FOX News Video: Heated Discussion. Warning: it’s a popup, so the player wil probably be stopped by your popup stopper.
So, people want it on YouTube. They want to discuss it. They want to paste the clip on their blogs and comment on it. So what should Fox do? I actually think that having the clip on YouTube will drive more people to their traditional channels. That they will earn more even if they can’t directly tie an income to the clip on YouTube.
But my suggestion right now would be that Fox take control. It should have been Fox that posted the clip on YouTube in the first place. They should have made their own submission the preferred among the YouTube crowd. By submitting it first. Maybe even before it was aired on traditional channels. They could also have added extra value to their own submission by including clips that was not aired on traditional channels.
YouTube are kind enough to provide Fox with a counter that will show how many people watched the clip on that channel. How about including commercials in the clip they post on YouTube? It shouldn’t be too difficult to price it, given that they have the number of viewers.
eirikso 
Yeah…it’s the good ol’ knee-jerk reaction!
Personally, I had gone off tv and YouTube’s sort revitalised my interest in getting some more channels and maybe giving tv another shot!
I don’t know what the networks are thinking when they pull stuff off! But…you know…it’s their loss!
I was, however, quite impressed with NBC who has actually made a commercial specifically aimed at YouTubers! I thought that was very smart! And although it frightens me about the future of YouTube, as I know it, I also thought it was kinda cute!
check out this: Fox Clinton Interview – Part 1 – Osama bin Laden and this: Olbermann’s Special Comment: Are YOURS the actions of a true American?
Crooks and Liars always has this stuff up and ready to roll, check it out.
Linn:
Thank you. I hadn’t seen the NBC clip, just followed the debate on the fact that they have put trailers on YouTube and got some negative feedback.
I think this is excellent. It shows that NBC have understood parts of this new medium. They join the conversation. And it’s highly entertaining!
I am not afraid of what this does with the future of YouTube. Fill it up! Commercials, trailers and you name it. The beauty of this medium is that we can still choose what to watch… 🙂
Nybe:
Very nice. Over there you can even download the clip as well. As I said, once it’s out there you can’t stop it.
Now they have changed their minds…
You’d think they’ve be smart enough to realize that removing the clip becomes a story in itself, drawing even more interest in this interview that didn’t go as expected.
If that is the case, they succeeded! 🙂
[…] Anyways, wanted to have a look at the whole video and naturally headed over to YouTube! And, naturally the RIAA had requested the video removed! Idiots! […]