The Viacom 100,000…the cart before the horse

By now you’ve heard that Viacom asked Google’s YouTube to remove 100,000 of their clips from the service.

Is this smart or stupid?  I say stupid and here’s why: if it’s a negotiating ploy to get a better deal…what’s the point?…No one knows what the best business model is yet. Why not get into the game and see what evolves. If it’s a strategy to get Google’s attention then its all about who has the bigger ego…And this is even dumber. 

I say, do like Les Moonves…get as many hands and feet into the game, get as much market feedback and data from the experiences, then test some strategies and test some more. The key is do short term deals only; that way you have the most maneuverability and leverage.

Further, if you gave me 100,000 clips on YouTube, I could build a multimillion-dollar business on that distribution alone without any revenue from YouTube. 

Further, nothing beats market share to get leverage. Why not get the exposure, turn the population of the clips from 100,000 to 1,000,000 then see what Google says in negotiations.

Philippe, why not focus on the opportunity and not the problem?