NYT writes about recent effort by media companies to create a competing offering for YouTube.
"I think people have been trying to figure out: 'Do we take a check from Google, or do we create our own game?' " said another executive who has been in the negotiations said. "But that Google check comes only once. The other option is to create something that is capable of becoming a big asset and controlling our own game."
While no one can dispute the value of sitting on a huge pile of content. That is undeniable a great asset for media companies, I am skeptic about any effort that has so many players trying to put together a simplified product for end users. Almost always each player has his own agenda and alignment of interest is difficult, to add to this Google factor, various partnerships that Google has and the check's that it can write today. I think this effort will turn out to be a good negotiation card for the media players to play against Google/YouTube, and that does have value, but nothing more.
