BIG PRODUCER$ Monetize YouTube Clip$
July 17th, 2008 by txactorWhile we wait for a resolution of the current contract ‘negotiations’ between SAG and the AMPTP, a few show biz reports give a look under the tent at why SAG is so concerned about issues like clip usage and residuals from new media. As an example, look at the deal announced this week between YouTube and Lionsgate as reported in the trades Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter:
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Rather than fight its fans, Lionsgate has made a deal with YouTube aimed at satisfying — and monetizing — the people who post clips of its films, like “Dirty Dancing,” which receive millions of views.
The studio will make excerpts from several hundred of its film and TV productions available on a branded YouTube channel that will allow users to share, embed, upload and mash up the clips.
Nothing to get excited about. Or is it? What does this move portend for the actors, writers, directors whose work is featured in these clips?
…”Jordan Hoffner, YouTube’s head of premium content partnerships, said his company is in talks to strike similar arrangements with other studios.
Pact follows other clip deals, but is noteworthy for its user flexibility at a time when Viacom is embroiled in a $1 billion copyright infringement suit with YouTube parent Google.”The deal also could highlight the contentious issue of what digital residuals might be owed to actors and other profit participants.
“Revenue generated with any piece of Lionsgate content is recorded and documented,” said Curt Marvis, Lionsgate’s president of digital media. “Splits are still to be determined, but there will be a trail of knowledge. I think that’s still being discussed (with guilds)…
…The deal has similarities to one struck between YouTube and CBS nearly two years ago, just before Google announced its acquisition of YouTube. A few months ago, Hulu, the joint venture of News Corp. and NBC Universal, loosened its restrictions on YouTube file-sharing, allowing short clips with embedded Hulu ads to stream on a branded YouTube channel.
However, the Lionsgate partnership calls for a heretofore unseen spirit of generosity in its user permissions.
“(The partnership) grew out of discussions about claiming — the process of getting content off YouTube,” Marvis said. “But if there’s an audience for our content, it was like, ‘Wait a minute. Let’s not put our heads in the sands here. Let’s give them what they want and get revenue from it.’”
Let’s not put our heads in the sand, indeed. For a group of people in the communication business, it seems to me that SAG has done a fairly poor job of informing the public of the moves being made by producers and studios on an almost daily basis that are directly related to the key issues in this contract negotiation.
Unfortunately, the horse is already out of the barn on this round of negotiations and it doesn’t appear likely that issues of clip use and residual income will be decided in a manner that will significantly benefit actors going forward. Based on prior experience, if we don’t ‘get it now’ we likely won’t be getting it at all.
The producers have, it appears, once again been successful in getting SAG to accept a contract that has terms that will make it very difficult for the average working actor to make a living….certainly not if he/she is counting on residual income streams.
It has become clear that this round of negotiations was seized by the AMPTP as the moment in time to roll back or even eliminate actors residual income streams as we have come to know them. We are at a time of changing technology that has opened the door to this move by producers.
Perhaps more of the Hollywood elite would object to the AMPTP tactics if we would refer to them as BIG MEDIA, BIG PRODUCER$, BIG ENTERTAINMENT or the BIG AMPTP, or BIG STUDIO$. It doesn’t have quite the ring of BIG OIL or BIG CORPORATIONS but somehow some of the same group of stars who constantly rail about BIG EVERYTHING don’t seem to see the studios and producers in the same light.
Could it be because many of these BIG STARS also have BIG FINANCIAL INTERESTS in BIG STUDIOS and BIG PRODUCTION COMPANIES? I guess not. These people have far too much integrity to do something only the Bushes and Cheneyes of the world would do. Right?
I’ll think about that when the next round of residual checks comes in and I deposit those checks for $10 and $20. I just don’t see how the producers can afford to pay those kind of prices for shows running on cable TV. I mean, nobody watches cable TV. Do they?
I’ll sure be glad when that infant technology grow$ up.
