Bad news for the YouTube set: Viacom today demanded that the popular video site remove all Viacom content from the site. Is that a big deal? You bet because Viacom includes BET, Famous Music, MTV Networks – MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, CMT: Country Music Television, Spike TV, TV Land Paramount Pictures and Paramount Home Entertainment – a cornucopia of YouTube traffic generating content.
The company says that content represents about 100,000 video clips – lifeblood to YouTubeViacom said its pirated programs on YouTube generate about 1.2 billion video streams, based on a study from an outside consultant, according to a Reuters report. Viacom’s action is one of Google’s worst fears realized. YouTube agreed to be acquired by Google last year in a $1.65 billion stock transaction. At the time analysts speculated YouTube’s ability to avoid lawsuits over the vast amount of copyright material that exists on the site, and some predicted the company would soon be hit with lawsuits. In recent months Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Entertainment and Warner Music Group each signed deals with the companies earlier this week to display their content, which could help shield the video sites from some lawsuits. The site has in the past cooperated with some content providers. For example, it recently deleted close to 30,000 files after complaints from an organization representing Japanese copyright holders.
