NBC: YouTube Was Built on Our Ripped-Off Content

Ars Technica reports: How did YouTube turn itself into such an essential worldwide service that Google plunked down $1.5 billion in cash and prizes to acquire the video sharing site? It depends who you ask, of course, but NBC Universal's general counsel, Rick Cotton, has his own answer: the cupcake-munching white rappers of Lazy Sunday fame. In other words, NBC made it possible, but YouTube made all the money.

In this view, YouTube was a nice place for emo kids to post rants about Britney Spears, but this sort of stuff hardly made YouTube an essential visit. No, what built YouTube's brand was the flood of unauthorized commercial content sloshing around on the site a few years back -- a heady time before Hulu et al. when one could reliably dig up episodes of The Simpsons, The Daily Show, or Saturday Night Live.

At a conference on the Future of Television this last week in New York, Cotton made it clear that he hasn't forgotten those early days. According to him, YouTube was vaulted into national popularity by SNL's hit "Lazy Sunday" rap about a pair of lame white guys from the Village who wanted nothing more than to spend a Sunday afternoon in the theater, watching The Chronicles of Narnia.

The clip went viral, generating more than 7 million streams, said Cotton, all of which benefited only one party: YouTube. (NBC U had the clips pulled from the site, but only after their popularity peaked.) NBC Universal has since been careful to put clips online, but to do so in such a way that it also receives a more direct benefit from them. The recent Tina Fey clips from SNL, in which the actress and writer portrayed Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to hilarious and devastating effect, have all racked up more than 10 million views each -- and they do some on Hulu and NBC.com, which gains both revenue and mindshare for the network.

NBC Universal isn't the only content owner to think this way. Viacom execs have also made it clear to anyone who would listen that it was their content -- most notably The Daily Show -- that made YouTube a go-to destination for online video. So highly did the company think of its content that it actually sued YouTube for more than $1 billion over the infringement.

But if the big rightsholders largely view themselves as responsible for the rise of YouTube, how does the company itself see its history? Fortunately, YouTube's Kevin Yen was on a panel soon after Cotton and
simply couldn't let this NBC-centric version of history go unchallenged.

When you actually go through the logs, said Yen, it turns out that you can't even spot a bump where the Lazy Sunday clip appeared.

This may be true when it comes to simple metrics about the number of streams, but it certainly won't quell debates over "influence" or "tipping points" or "national prominence." The big content owners are still convinced by the mantra "content is king," and they're not pleased to see young upstarts ascend to a throne using their work.

As for YouTube, it clearly sees the value in professionally-produced, big money content as well. The site has been anxious to strike ad deals with anyone who's willing after realizing just how hard it can be to squeeze money from unpredictable and nonprofessional user-generated content.

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