YouTube Strikes Deals with CBS, Sony BMG, Universal

YouTube announced strategic content and distribution deals with CBS, Sony BMG and Universal Music -- providing the popular video sharing site with new revenue-sharing streams and opening the market for user-generated videos that incorporate copyrighted elements.



CBS -- The strategic content and advertising partnership calls for the CBS Television Network, Showtime Networks as well as its basic cable/digital media service, CSTV Networks, to offer the YouTube community a variety of short-form video programming from its news, sports and entertainment divisions on a daily basis beginning this month.



YouTube and CBS will share revenue from advertising sponsorships of CBS Videos. In addition, CBS is the first TV network to test YouTube's new advanced content identification architecture and reporting system which will allow CBS to protect its intellectual property by identifying and locating copyrighted CBS content on YouTube. CBS will then have the opportunity to either remove it from the site or, at CBS's sole discretion, allow it to remain. If CBS allows the content to remain on the site, CBS will share in any revenue from advertising placed adjacent to the content.



CBS will also be providing the YouTube community with video content from CSTV about college sports, including more than 100 broadband channels of live college sports.



Content on YouTube's new CBS Brand Channel will include daily contributions from: CBS Entertainment; including short clips from top CBS programs including "Survivor," "CSI," and "The Late Show with Dave Letterman," as well as mini-previews and footage from its new fall lineup.



Sony BMG -- YouTube will make available a wide variety of video content from the music company's world-renowned library, including ENTERTAINMENT artists ranging from the most important recordings in history to today's hottest young artists. The companies are also collaborating to allow users to include certain SONY BMG sound recordings in their own uploads, adding to the Internet's most vibrant video entertainment destination.



UMG -- YouTube will offer its users access to thousands of videos from UMG's extensive roster of artists covering every genre of music. In addition, under this agreement, UMG broadly embraces the power and creativity of user-generated content, allowing users to incorporate music from UMG's recorded music catalog into the videos they create and upload onto YouTube. UMG and its artists will be compensated not just for UMG produced videos but also for the unique, user created content that incorporates UMG music.



YouTube and UMG have also agreed to a process to protect UMG copyrights using technology to filter out UMG content that is not authorized to appear on the YouTube service.

http://www.youtube.comYouTube recently announced a new content identification architecture, intended to help copyright holders identify their content on YouTube.