Does anyone get the feeling like me that there hasn't been much new going on in the monetization of the online video world? The longer time goes on, the more it looks like Google (GOOG) is letting a golden opportunity pass them by to take the lead with YouTube.
The news coverage is moving toward Joost and the upcoming, unnamed venture between News Corp. (NWS-A) and NBC Universal (GE). It seems some of the pizzazz of YouTube is diminishing.
Online Video Insider talks about this, mentioning that Google can probably afford to sit on YouTube until it does what it wants with it. But it's not quite as simple as that. If they do start to lose their brand, and become a commodity online video business, it won't matter what Google does with it.
Another side of the issue is the industry is looking for some leadership here, something that YouTube was in a prime position to take. Instead, about all we've heard coming out of them is the fear of trying things in case they might get some 
people mad at them.
To me it's past time to start taking some action here. If there is a lot of feedback, which there will be, they can make adjustments and try something else. To do nothing won't continue to be an option.
The professional content providers are only months away from offering a monetized online video platform. At that time it may be too late for YouTube to have much of an impact. They'll just have to follow at that time, or consider the site a loss leader.
With the puzzling non-action of Google, it does lead to the question of why they bought YouTube in the first place.
That brings us back to Joost, Blinkx (BLNX-L) and others entering the professional online video streaming ad space. They not too far away from introducing a variety of ways to monetize video.
At this time companies are understanding the huge potential at stake and are starting to respond. Probably by the end of this year and early next year, we'll start to see some of what online video ads will start to look like. As I've mentioned before, it won't be any one answer, but a series of different ways of presenting ads depending on the demographic and type of content.
We do need to see some companies take a leadership role in this. It's too important to the growing of the importance of the Internet and monetizing that growth, than to just sit on the sidelines hoping someone else will do it. Some companies are starting to take the initiative. Time will tell if they become the standard of the industry.
Comment Preview