BBC and YouTube in Deal Talks

The BBC and YouTube are in the process of striking a deal between themselves, allowing BBC content to be available on Google-owned YouTube, the world’s largest and most popular video sharing service.

The Beeb has previously demanded takedowns of a large number of its videos that were posted to the site by YouTube users, resulting in the message, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by The BBC“.

Recently, the BBC has concluded the pulic testing phase of its forthcoming ‘iPlayer’ service. iPlayer is a an on-demand service that allows UK license payers the opportunity to catch up with all the BBC’s television content. Users will be able to download TV programs for between a week and 30 days after the show’s original broadcast. The content will be protected by Microsoft’s DRM system which it has been working with the BBC to implement.

The deal between YouTube and the BBC however, is more interesting still, since YouTube is a global service that is completely free to all users. Shows cannot be downloaded from YouTube. Instead, they’re watched online on the YouTube website, or the YouTube player is embedded in other websites for no cost to the user. This is the nature of content sharing that has seen YouTube grow from a company making no money, to a company worth almost $2billion to Google, in less than two years.

Quite what the BBC-YouTube deal will entail is anyone’s guess. It is highly, highly unlikely to include full-length current BBC shows. What could be possible is the addition to YouTube of much older shows, such as classics like ‘The Young Ones’ or ‘Fawlty Towers’, in an effort to boost the shows’ exposure and increase DVD sales of these shows.

It could, however, be a clips service. Perhaps montages of new shows, to serve as advertisements. This wouldn’t appeal to audiences outside of the UK since those people wouldn’t get access to the shows for some time.

The other advantage of a clips service is that it would allow for full exploitation of content sharing; users would be able to forward clips of their favourite shows to their friends or blog readers, without fear of breaking copyright laws. This would mean huge publicity for BBC shows and DVD releases.

Other possibilities include the legal sharing of news bulletins and headlines, intended to drive further traffic back to the BBC’s websites.

There is no mention of when the partnership would be announced.

EDIT: I feel I should note that I am aware YouTube clips can be downloaded using third-party tools, such as iTube (which I use). I stuck to writing about legit, YouTube suported download methods, of which there are none.