leftys_rock
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Youtube to censor tennis clipsYouTube Goes Gonzo On Sports
by Lynn Berenbaum
Last week, in its first deal with a major sports league, video-sharing website YouTube announced a strategic partnership with the National Hockey League (NHL) to post daily short-form video content for the 2006-2007 season.
Video highlights of NHL regular season games are now available on YouTube within 24 hours of broadcast, along with other hockey-related programming on a custom NHL channel. The hope is that the deal will help the NHL reach a new audience, as well as provide a better way to connect with its existing fans.
It’s not surprising that this merger came about. YouTube and the NHL went into this partnership specifically because hockey fans are the biggest and the fastest growing sports fan sector to use the web.
Google’s acquistion of YouTube stops the spread of people making homemade, ripped from DVR, videos so that the people who own that content are entitled to reimbursement. Since the acquisition, YouTube has steadfastly been deleting copyrighted sports videos. For tennis related videos, this started with content related to the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and just today, clips from the U.S. Open. (I personally got three notices in a row. Sorry you won’t get to see my awesome Justin Gimelstob vids anymore.)
For tennis fans, in particular, this is an interesting situation. Our sport exists in a plane of a year-long season which criss-crosses the globe and is aired on multiple television networks that sometimes only reach local fans. It’s often difficult for fans to know who actually owns the material, suffice to say that “randomuser” who grabbed it off his DVR is not one. Still, any intellectual property attorney might argue that Fair Use in the U.S. is under 2 minutes, and that there are no real laws that pertain to the web in this area. But I digress… My main point is that given the variables, it probably behooves the tennis powers-that-be (PTB) to have their fans get out the content as much as possible — and for free.
I’ve talked to a few people in the tennis marketing community about this, and the consensus on YouTube seems to be that that the “misuse” of copyrighted intellectual property is not much of an issue or concern when it comes to the online sports space. Social networking and Internet community-building is going through such a cool growth spurt that most people seem to be looking for ways to become more involved, not less. Why stop the train?
Well, money may be that stopping factor. Another dynamic with the NHL deal is the monetization schema that’s occuring. The league will share in revenue from ads placed alongside hockey video clips, and will use YouTube’s “Claim Your Content” program, which allows producers to identify copyrighted content and either have it removed, or share in ad revenue on the infringing video clips. Google’s efforts to monetize YouTube seem set to change the new media landscape as other entities, including sports teams and leagues, try to aggregate and centralize their video content.
It’s not surprising to hear that YouTube is also negotiating similar deals with other sports leagues. Could tennis be one? And more importantly, will the ATP and WTA be able to keep up? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say ‘no’ and that the community of tennis fans better come up with another video sharing site…and fast.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN? People like erichman and poldame are going to go bezerkers over this!
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Benchwarmer1
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Stupid Google AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH 
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dav6789
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Does this mean that erichman and poldame won't be able to post videos anymore?
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x.doublea
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This is terrible, but I guess it's correct legally.
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stevos14
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OMG  I lived on those videos, now I'll just have to download everything on megaupload again. That is so crappy, I hope Poldame finds another site.
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leftys_rock
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| dav6789 wrote: | | Does this mean that erichman and poldame won't be able to post videos anymore? |
Yes.  And all their hard work of uploading will be gone.
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Tennis fan
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I knew this would happen, the minute Google bought them.
This is already happening with some NBC and MSNBC videos. They get uploaded to YouTube and the then YouTube "police" comes adround and removes them!
The problem is not for erichman and poldame I mean they already have the content. WE HAVE THE PROBLEM!!! I am so mad!  It has been so great. And Erichman's quality is the best!
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J-man
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Erichman better invade metacafe or Gofish 
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Tennis fan
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| J-man wrote: | | Erichman better invade metacafe or Gofish |
hmm... I never heard if Gofish. Anyhow I am sure that this will raise the value of their competition like MetaCafe and others..
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J-man
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Yes it's good news for rival online video sites
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x.doublea
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| J-man wrote: | | Yes it's good news for rival online video sites |
...before they get aquired by Google or get sued as well.
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Tennis fan
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| x.doublea wrote: | | J-man wrote: | | Yes it's good news for rival online video sites |
...before they get aquired by Google or get sued as well. |
... and by that time new ones will have come out.
IMO no one can stop the internet... one day people will realize that they will not be able to control or copywrite content. All the money is in advertising.
By the way i just realized that while NBC is blocking all it's content from YouTube, CBS promotes it. I am not sure if CBS and YouTUbe made some kind of deal. I assume they did.
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J-man
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That intresting. NBC was promoting TV clips on Youtube
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Tennis fan
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| J-man wrote: | | That intresting. NBC was promoting TV clips on Youtube |
Was posted by others. Not NBC. They are trying to get people over to MSNBC for official video content.
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