Memo To TV Networks -- Build Your Own Sites, Not A YOUTUBE Copycat

(From Cynopsis -- By Daisy Whitney)

NBC inadvertently proved late last month exactly why there is no need for an online video consortium amongst the broadcast networks.

In early December, executives at NEWS CORP., VIACOM, NBC UNIVERSAL and CBS floated the idea of creating a new Web site for their television clips that could compete with YOUTUBE, but then DISNEY said it wouldn't play ball and Viacom quickly backed out.

However, an interesting thing happened on the Web in late December that had nothing to do with the consortium, but now is the strongest piece of evidence as to why such a site is not even remotely necessary.

NBC posted an explicit version on YouTube and NBC.com on December 16th of its now famous SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sketch "D--- IN A BOX." And the numbers went up and up and up.

The bleeped-out version ran on-air, but the uncensored version that NBC posted online had generated 7.7 million views on YouTube by December 29th and 1.5 million on NBC.com.

Surely, NBC didn't set out to prove that viewers would rather go to YouTube than NBC.com, and by any measure the "BOX" is a runaway hit.

But with more than FIVE times as many people viewing the clip on YouTube than NBC.com, those numbers indicate that the greater opportunity for networks lies in smart partnerships with the likes of YouTube, not in creating a me-too site.

"There are already these other sites that have already established themselves so it's unlikely an aggregated site would gain much," said WILL RICHMOND, President of BROADBAND DIRECTIONS research firm.

And while the networks did a good job last year establishing their own Web sites as destinations for full episodes of their shows, this year they should augment that work by trying to replicate YouTube's clip culture on their own sites rather than a new third party destination, Mr. Richmond said.

Plus, the networks already have a nice base to build on.

After all, those 1.5 million views on NBC.com are nothing to sneeze at.

Collectively about 22 million unique visitors came to FOX.com, ABC.com, NBC.com and CBS.com combined in November, according to NIELSEN NET RATINGS.

Those numbers are the real story, and TV executives should seek to fortify their existing sites, not build a new one.