Jon Stewart, Lorne Michaels Come Out In Favour of YouTube

techdirt writes "Viacom employee Jon Stewart recently announced that he believes his bosses are making a mistake in taking Viacom content off of YouTube. Today, NBC employee and Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels has stated he can't understand NBC's position on YouTube. The interview with Michaels is especially interesting, because it was a Saturday Night Live clip of the infamous 'Lazy Sunday' music video that is often credited with putting YouTube on the map. At the same time, however, almost everyone admitted that it did wonders in revitalizing SNL's reputation (as well as boosting Andy Samberg's reputation to new heights). Yet, NBC's lawyers shot it down, limiting the benefit to SNL. It appears that Michaels understands that, and says he wishes they could put more of the show on YouTube."

Re:poof

[Short Circuit]

It was removed weeks ago, back when Viacom asked Google to remove all Viacom content from Youtube.

Of course, Viacom went on to sue Google anyway...

not a big deal

[alphamugwump]

While you can certainly find whole seasons of shows on youtube, the more usual thing is to just make a short clip of the relevant part. Then, the youtube superstars post their replies, followed by their hanger-ons, all the way down to the fat, ugly dregs of the internet. As with slashdot, the original article doesn't really matter. The news is more of a starting point than an end in itself.

It seems to me that "old media" is really being rather obsessive about infringement. So what if a couple thousand people watched your small, grainy, old clip. So what if a crazy, half-naked scot provides more interesting political commentary than your own guys. OK, that one must hurt a lot. But still. You've got loads of money. You've got publishing expertise; you know what the public wants. Probably. Most likely, net neutrality won't go through, so you might be able to clamp down on digital distribution. It'll be just like cable TV, distributed through the same cable providers, but routed over the internet instead. Unlike, say, book publishers, your business model isn't totally shot, not if you adapt.

Hang in there, Viacom. We're rooting for you.

Re:poof

[plasmacutter]

I don't think it worked that way.

from what i remember reading, viacom made a blanket request for google to remove all viacom content from youtube without specifying any shows or videos.. essentially they said "do our work for us".

google refused to do this, and asked them to identify each clip in takedown notices as per the dmca.

viacom acted like a spoiled child denied his ninja turtle action figure and threw a tantrum, and is now sueing google with a more or less meritless case.

Re:Denial

[Waffle Iron]

A show like SNL is dead if it loses any vestige of a "cool" factor. SNL had lost its big-name cast members like Will Farrell a couple of years prior, and was in one of its many periodic doldrums. This clip made millions of people aware that they had recently hired a group of new cast members that actually have a good deal of potential (although IMO the writing since then has not usually been up to par with the potential talent of the cast).

The clip and the hype around it really kept SNL from falling off the radar screen for a lot of people. The ratings didn't drop, which they very well might have in light of the strong competition like the Daily Show and its ilk that's saturating cable these days. The clip was a strong generator of buzz in a market where buzz is vitally important for survival.