YouTube to begin paying prolific contributors

[mason55]

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2...utube-pay.html

[ QUOTE ]
YouTube will initially move a handful of its top video-posters who have "built and sustained large, persistent audiences" to a revenue-sharing arrangement similar to those enjoyed by broadcasters such as CBS and NBC, professional sports organizations such as the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League, as well as music and other entertainment companies, including Universal Music Group and video game publisher Electronic Arts.

[/ QUOTE ]

The lines between traditional and independent media continue to blur. I wonder if this was in Google's plans when they paid $1.65B for YouTube. Anyone have thoughts on how this will affect mass media in the next few years? Are the old networks going to become obsolete? I don't know a ton about mass media but it seems like this could seriously cripple networks and cable companies if some kind of vertical integration from producer -> YouTube -> TV can be developed. Is this the next step in Google's plans of world domination?

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

how much will people make? examples of people who will be paid?

[KotOD]

Tuff Fish is going to be a billionaire.

[imitation]

I'd heard about this it sounds very interesting and promising, but some of the crap that has extremely large number of views and continues to because of the ranking system which encourages people to search for and find things which have already been viewed many times needs to be fixed, to encourage new better content which can catch up in the ratings more quickly.

[mason55]

[ QUOTE ]
how much will people make? examples of people who will be paid?

[/ QUOTE ]

All I know is what was posted in the article. They're not going to be paying people who post the latest High Stakes Poker in 5 parts though. It will be people who create original content and have a following. For an example search for lonelygirl15, she's going to be one of the first people signed on to the program.

No idea how much they'll be paying, but it's going to be like Google AdWords. The content creator will get a cut of the ad revenue generated from people viewing their videos. Extremely capitalistic, the better your video is the more you get paid.

[imitation]

This is why respected poster accounts on many forums will be worth alot of money, imagine you had 10 long term respected posters in your pockets at 10 of the biggest forums in the world. They each posted links to your so-so video suddenly you're generating huge numbers of views, without producing the high quality content that should matter.

I think this will be just like adsense the people making money will just be exploiting the system and it does little if anything to improve the actual content available on the internet.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

This is cool, but I am wondering if there will be a catch to it: If you had been making videos and at the buttom of the video it says www.YourSite.com, will you no longer be able to do that?

[mason55]

Imitation -

Promoting good videos benefits Google as well as the producer, since Google will be taking a cut of the ad revenue generated by the video. Since this is the case, it's in Google's best interest to promote these videos. They already have a "Featured Content" thing on the front page of YouTube, I would imagine they're planning to expand this to highlight these content producers.

Also, the internet tends to be good at finding hidden gems. If something is quality then it usually spreads like wildfire. Since YouTube is less time-sensitive than traditional media (ie this show is on 8pm, you had better be there to watch it) I think there's also less chance of quality things getting missed.

[CrazyEyez]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know a ton about mass media but it seems like this could seriously cripple networks and cable companies if some kind of vertical integration from producer -> YouTube -> TV can be developed.

[/ QUOTE ]
A lot of people have been trying to figure out that last step. But computer/tv integration is still moving at a snail's pace.