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Talk about a stunning turnaround and maybe the ultimate "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" bit of news. YouTube, the scourge of video copyright holders everywhere, will start offering network programming, including full-length television shows on the web site.
And it all begins today. YouTube will partner with CBS [CBS
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]and other networks to offer the programming, and if the deal comes to pass, would represent the ultimate about-face for networks. CBS will start with Beverly Hills 90210 (the original one), some episodes of "MacGyver", "Star Trek" (the original) and 14 episodes of "Young and the Restless." Remember, it was Viacom, which used to own CBS, that filed that $1 billion lawsuit against Google[GOOG
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], which of course bought YouTube, charging thousands of copyright violations for letting YouTube users post Viacom [VIA
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]content on the site without securing rights.
Now the two might partner instead. Which just goes to show the negotiation prowess of Les Moonves over Philippe Dauman. Of course, it was just last fall that Dauman's son, Philippe Dauman, Jr., went to work for Google as a "Strategic Partner Development Associate," even as that $1 billion lawsuit continued to loom.
So now it appears that Moonves is borrowing a page from Disney's[DIS
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] Bob Iger, and choosing to embrace new technology rather than scoff at it. The same kind of approach that landed the music labels squarely behind the digital entertainment 8-ball by fighting the technological steamroller rather than trying to figure out a way to hitch a ride on it instead.
More to the point, this becomes key for Google and its ongoing misfiring strategies of trying to figure out a way to monetize YouTube. Partnering with YouTube makes infinitely more sense than fighting it. For both sides. The financials of these arrangements could be fascinating. And they could also represent enormous opportunity if CBS is only merely the first domino to fall. NBC Universal and News Corp.'s [NWS
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]Fox have gone their own way with their own digital distribution strategy with their own unique partnership in Hulu.com. And it's enjoyed some significant success. But that site generates nowhere near the eyeballs YouTube enjoys, and if more media can match the CBS deal, YouTube and Google might be sitting pretty.
And for Google, it's about time. I don't see this as a major moneymaker for Google and YouTube for the immediate, or even intermediate future. But wow, what a signal it sends. YouTube might finally be going legit.
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