YouTube can change the world, but it can’t make money from streaming



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YouTube is the public access television of our time, a free-for-all hobbyist with tremendous power to influence culture but no easy way to monetize that power.

That’s what sports, tech and entertainment specialist Mark Cuban says, who this week posted a straightforward and intriguing take on Netflix, YouTube and TV on his Maverick blog website.

Marc CubanHis article is titled “How Netflix Is Hurting YouTube”, and it comes as parent company Google talks (albeit in vague terms) about using YouTube to sell, rent and stream feature films, and also to make call on Hollywood talent to contribute original material. .

“On YouTube, maybe you can change the world,” writes Cuban, who says the sheer volume and variety of user-generated content makes the platform a great way to build communities, but “a huge challenge. if you’re trying to maximize earnings per share for your parent company. People won’t pay any subscriptions for nothing and most will never be paid by themselves with advertising because most will never be seen. “

On all three platforms, writes Cuban, traditional television is “where you get entertainment in real time”; Netflix is ​​distinguished by its vast library and its “extraordinary work of being readily available on any device known on the Internet”; and YouTube is “like browsing the bargain basket at Walmart in the hopes of finding something you might be interested in knowing the price is right.”

But the bargain bin wants to be more than that – which, the still outspoken Cuban says, is why “YouTube channels 1998 [ouch!] and getting ready to do quite a bit of live streaming. “

He thinks the movement could be revolutionary in some ways. But as a business strategy, he doesn’t think it will work the way Google wants it to.

“[I]It won’t change the content layering challenge that YouTube is currently facing, ”he says. “… The reality is that cable / telco / sat distributors on your TV and Netflix are moving faster in terms of the introduction of technology (TV Everywhere / DVR / IPad remote and multi-device support) and the introduction of content. new and original of great value than YouTube. “

Cuban’s blog also says nice things about YouTube – but overall, the colorful and often controversial entrepreneur should probably expect most Google executives to support the Portland Trail Blazers rather than the Dallas Cubans. Mavericks when the NBA playoffs begin this weekend.

(Photo by Michael Buckner / Getty Images)

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