There but for the grace of CBS goes YouTube CBS was loving YouTube this week. Lost Remote reported this press release from the broadcaster, in which CBS proudly and willingly credits its new partnership with YouTube for increasing ratings of some of its shows on the box. They've done really well - 29.2 million views of the 300 videos they've uploaded since the partnership started a month ago; and an increase in viewing figures of up to 7% for some programmes. Finally proof that broadcasters are now viewing YouTube as a friend rather than a foe?

Er... not quite. Up until a couple of hours ago, this link was a video of a technical meltdown on the CBS Evening News - which resulted in a premature end to the programme, with Katie Couric forced to stand awkwardly while a very very long version of the end credits rolled. Now it's been "removed at the request of CBS because its content was used without permission". Not much of a honeymoon.

Labels: CBS, TV, YouTube

¶ 9:11 PM 0 comments

YouTube beating journalists? An interesting story on MSNBC on how the FBI have launched an investigation into alleged police brutality, after a video of an officer striking a suspect in the face during an arrest was posted on YouTube. It's not hard to draw instant parrallels with the Rodney King story back in 1991 - both involved the LAPD, and a home video taken by an onlooker.

But, whereas George Holliday took the video of the King beating to a local TV station, the bystander who recorded this latest incident posted it on YouTube. From there, an LA blog picked up on it, and things spiralled from there. So does this mean traditional media no longer has a role to play in bringing videos like this to light?

Probably not. It's worth noting that things didn't really start to happen until the old-school news outlets picked up on the video and started beating a path to the LAPD's door. So YouTube alone may not have been enough to trigger this investigation.

That's not to say things won't change, though - and one thing that's conspicuous by its absence here is the big exclusive for one newspaper or TV station.

Labels: YouTube

¶ 11:26 AM 0 comments