For the first time in the migration from analog to digital, the traditional media companies have something to swagger about. With YouTube having to face the copyright law, and huge portions of their users uploading copyrighted material, the media companies are now in position to get what they want out of this deal.
Think of the Telcos and their fight to get a license to cover the country rather than have to negotiate with every single local or regional area.
Google (GOOG) now faces that in their specific space. This is why they have reportedly offered one of the big companies a flat $100 million to license its content over a period of two years.
If you knew the complexity of some of the deals made by studios with 
investors, along with other numerous complexities in the music industry, you'd understand why Google almost would have to offer these blanket amounts to get rid of dealing with every individual connected to the content.
The studios and music industry know this ... thus for the first time are in a better bargaining position than the Internet companies.
After all, the alternative is what Mark Cuban suggested would happen when a big company bought YouTube: to be sued into oblivion. While it would be foolish for the media companies to do this, they've done a lot of other stupid things in the past that has hurt them.
Another issue facing the media companies is the same one they faced when resisting working with Steve Jobs and Apple (AAPL): they don't want to give up any control. If they empower Google to become as big a powerhouse in online video as they are in online search, they may have released something that is way out of their control.
Their obvious side of it is that they have to weigh whether they want to try to build something from scratch, which it doesn't seem they're able to do, deal with Google, or fight them and lose the potential huge audience that they represent.
The fun's just beginning.
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