Will Youtube Grab Ad Dollars Away From Tv?

Google-owned YouTube could see revenue from advertising increase by 40 percent or more from a year ago, according to Capstone analyst Rory Maher. In an interview with AllThingsD.com columnist Peter Kafka, Maher observed that while YouTube has been attempting to persuade advertisers to move money budgeted for television to its site, which is increasingly offering original TV-like programs, most of the new revenue that the video site is attracting is actually being moved away from other websites. "That's still a win for Google, but it's not the win it really wants," Kafka commented. Perhaps one of the reasons is that the quality of the programs that YouTube unveiled at its own "upfront" pitch to advertisers last week looked crude compared with what is being pitched by the television networks at their upfronts, despite featuring name talent. "But if that doesn't bother the people who watch it," Kafka observed, "then it shouldn't be a problem for the ad guys, either."

14/05/2012