YouTube to partner with big media on advertising

Google plans to give big media companies a cut of advertising revenues when their videos appear on YouTube, regardless of who posts them to the site.

The technology blog TechCrunch reported Wednesday that unnamed sources at YouTube expect Google to expand a program that allows media companies to sell advertising for their video content that appears on YouTube. The progr am is expected to be expanded by the end of the first quarter.

The blog reports that today only a few media partners sell their personal ads on YouTube. But YouTube confirmed that a few big partners, much as CBS, already sell their own advertisin g inventory for videos in their own YouTube channels as well as on videos that are picked up by YouTube's Content ID method, which identifies copyrighted content, the TechCrunch story said.

YouTube has long had a argumentative relationship with b ig media companies. Some, like Viacom, have even sued the company for allowing people to post copyrighted content. But if the report from TechCrunch is accurate, Google is off ering an olive branch to big media. And the deal will likely goodness both YouTube and big media companies.

Giving media companies the ability to sell their own advertising--not only for videos they post but also for videos that others post--wil l help them recover receipts for their produced content. The move could also serve big media companies change their own online digital strategy by also allowing them to trade some of their own advertising for the content on YouTube. And of course, the d eal would benefit Google because it would be getting a cut of these advertising revenues.

The publicizing program is part of a larger effort by Google to monetize content posted on YouTube, which is the Web's No. 1 video site. The company has been experimenting with several business models. On Wednesday it announced that it will expand its click-to-buy products program to viewers in Germany, Spain, and the Ne therlands. Previously, YouTube has offered this feature in the U.S. and the U.K., according to Peter Kafka at All Things Digital.

Google has acknowledged that generating significant revenue from YouT ube has been difficult.

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