Google Confirms YouTube Deal
The news about Google’s plans to acquire YouTube has proven true. Google has just announced that it will acquire YouTube in a stock-swap deal worth US$ 1.65 Billion.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.
Offhand, I see the deal benefitting both parties this way: Google gets YouTube’s userbase and community (along with the market data YouTube has gathered so far and continues to do so), and YouTube gets better accesss to revenue streams from advertising.
ForeverGeek has a post detailing interesting opinions on why this deal makes sense. The post basically reasons that acquiring YouTube is one way Google sets itself ahead of the pack. Video advertising is expected to be the next best thing, and Google is already positioning itself as the leader, when its competitors (Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) are still starting to fiddle with contextual text-ads.
Also, it’s the YouTube brand that’s likely to be the most important aspect of the acquisition. YouTube already has excellent mindshare, and Google knows that this is just what makes a successful web application. With the large community already revolving around YouTube, Google can expect tons of market data. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
If this turns out to be a synergy–where the acquisition will produce more value for the larger entity, as opposed to each running on its own–then good. If it fails, it probably won’t make much of a dent on Google’s bottomline. $ 1.65 Billion is just a small amount considering Google’s performance so far and earning potential. And no cash changed hands, after all. It’s a stock-swap!
Implications to television
I’m a fan of Web videos because it’s one form of video-on-demand. I get to do searches on videos and watch them when and where I want to. Admittedly, I do watch some show episodes on YouTube, and the very presence of those videos is against the site’s terms of service, because they are copyrighted material.
With Google entering the picture, there had been speculations that YouTube will be facing lawsuits left and right because they will now start earning revenues off other people’s copyrighted material–this is no longer within fair use principles. But with Google on the business side, it might be able to strike a compromise. Why not do what the television networks are doing? Why not show advertisements (text ads, and even video ads) along with the freely-viewable videos, and give the copyright owners a cut? In my opinion, pay video is bad in that it limits the viewership, and does not satisfy the audience, because of low quality of Web-videos.
As for the traditional television routes (free TV, cable, PVRs), this could spell trouble. Google is known to own tons of dark fibre running across the entire United States (the company has been buying defunct ISPs and broadband providers). Once it decides to start using these to boost bandwidth across the country, then Google could just be creating the next big multimedia network since TV was invented.
Google Interested in Acquiring YouTube
Search giant Google is reportedly interest in acquiring popular video-sharing site YouTube, according to a report by CNN. Google and YouTube are in discussions, but would not disclose any details for now.
Recall that Google already has its own Web video service, Google Video, developing its own format along with content available for-pay. Google has even gone to the extent of incorporating video advertisements on its Adsense publisher program.
However, if estimates are correct, YouTube gets 100 million video views per day, and that makes it the largest video sharing site online.
One very pressing issue, however is copyright. YouTube has been criticized for its users uploading copyrighted content. While this is against the YouTube terms of service, it has become very difficult to enforce. And most copyright holders (TV and movie studios, for instance) have become lenient, presumably because YouTube helps spread the popularity of their content, and since YouTube still does not have a compelling business model to date.
But once Google–or any other larger company, for that matter–decides to acquire YouTube and put up a clear business model for the content online, then copyright holders are sure to protest (and sue).
Canon to Mass Produce Thin, Power-Efficient TVs by 2008
Canon, Inc. announced that it will begin mass-producing ultra-thin and energy-efficient television sets by early 2008, amid predictions that steep price drops in flat-screen sets would be a tough hindrance to rolling out such a technology.
In 2004, Canon and Toshiba Corp. set up a joint venture to produce surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) panels, which are thinner and consume less energy than liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panels, the main technologies used for flat panel TVs.
While an earlier release to market of Canon’s super-thin and power-efficient televisions had been planned, the companies had to postpone to a later date, with news that price drops of flat-screen TVs would be prevalent in the ensuing months. The delay gives Canon and Toshiba more time to be able to develop their product at an improved cost competitive atmosphere, rather than develop expensively today and sell at a loss sooner.
How Many Televisions?
According to a recent survey done in the USA, it seems that there are now more televisions per house than people, thanks to the decreasing costs of purchasing a CRT television (those big, heavy, boxy ones).
Nielsen Media Research has said that the threshold was crossed in the last two years, but this means that now there are on average 2.73 television sets in the typical home which only has 2.55 people.
How many televisions do you have in your home? We only have one, for my fiancée and I, but that seems plenty, at least for the time being.
Source: Silicon Valley
Watch Cable TV on Your Computer
While free TV was the only way to watch video content in the earlier 20th century, this was replaced by Cable TV. And while cable TV used to be the only way to avoid boredom from a limited number of freeview channels, today you can entertain yourself with downloads from the Web or DVDs.
Watching videos or even TV through computers is increasingly becoming popular, and is especially popular among households and individuals who would rather not spend extra for . This can be done either by installing a TV tuner on your computer via PCI, PCI express or USB 2.0 and plugging in directly to the cable TV outlet, or downloading from the Internet. Today’s proliferation of Broadband connections makes it easier and less costly to stream videos thru the Internet. Hence, if you don’t have an actual CATV connection, you can now ideally view TV shows online as long as there are content providers that are willing to do so.
One such content network is TVU networks, which has made available a freely downloadable player that lets Windows XP users watch several cable TV channels online.
I’ve tried it on my laptop using a 384 Kbps connection and the video and audio quality was decent enough for casual viewing. There’s not fullscreen mode, though, and the resolution is about half that of regular NTSC TV (which is about 640×400). I’ve experienced some choppy streams every now and then, but I’m not complaining since I do have an actual CATV subscription, anyway, and I only use TVU so I can monitor TV channels while working at places without TV (say, at the WiFi-enabled cafe).
Channels include Star TV, CNN, Al Jazeera, CW, ESPN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Disney, Cartoon Network, and the Animal Planet, among others.
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