NBC to promote shows via YouTube

One of my biggest complaints about major corporations is that they are too slow to embrace technological trends. Look at DVD. That was around for years before the major movie companies decided to put their new releases out on the format, citing a fear of piracy. They said the same thing years earlier about video and will probably continue to say the same thing about distributing their films over the Internet (though some companies have dipped their toes in these terrifying waters).
That’s why I’m so impressed with NBC’s announcement that they will be promoting several of their shows via YouTube.
YouTube, a video sharing site, was launched last year and has become a huge Internet phenomenon (in fact I regularly pull stuff off of YouTube for Mad Mad Media). Of course, most of it is teens acting stupid, but there are a couple of real video gems on the site.
NBC had a run in with YouTube late last year after users posted copies of “Lazy Sunday,” a Saturday Night Live rap about two guys going to see the Chronicles of Narnia, and other SNL skits.
But to the surprise of many, instead of suing them and making them shut down — like the RIAA with Napster or the MPAA with the Internet as a whole — NBC saw YouTube’s potential.
According to an InformationWeek article, 70 million videos are downloaded from YouTube everyday and the service has 12.6 million unique visitors each month. That’s a huge audience of people that, lets face it, aren’t watching TV.NBC, I may not have agreed with you on Suddenly Susan, Men Behaving Badly, anything crammed between Seinfeld and Friends, ER, the cancellation of Automan, Joey, Jesse, In The House, Caroline in the City, Wings, Empty Nest, The Golden Girls, the last season of The Apprentice, that dating show where the model was dating normal people, Whoopi, The Biggest Loser, Good Morning, Miami, Fired Up, and about a million other things, your deal with YouTube more than makes up for that.