YouTube Forms New Content ID Partnerships

YouTube has announced several new partnerships with broadcast video delivery and management companies – Harmonic, Telestream, and Digital Rapids. YouTube says these partnerships will make it possible for many media companies to provide them with reference files for their content at about the same time it is being produced.

The idea is that this will improve YouTube’s ability to work with major content producers so that they don’t find their content on YouTube without getting paid. 

"Think about it this way: when media companies — like the BBC, HBO, and Time Warner — record big news or sporting events live, they use technology from Harmonic, Telestream, and Digital Rapids to quickly convert that high quality video and audio content into the files they use to broadcast on cable, the Internet, mobile phones, and other platforms," explains YouTube Product Manager George Salem. "By integrating Content ID with this technology, YouTube is effectively inside broadcast headquarters, helping to convert footage into reference files almost instantaneously. This is a direct integration of YouTube into how these companies’ create and broadcast content: much less custom work dealing with YouTube."

A couple years ago YouTube launched Content ID, and has made a number of improvements to the system since then. It scans over 100 years worth of video each day, according to YouTube, and the company says that the more its partners use it, the more money they (both parties) make. YouTube says over 33% of its monetized views come from videos that have been claimed by rights holders using Content ID.

YouTube is currently involved with a billion dollar lawsuit from Viacom that has been going on for 31 months. New evidence has reportedly come to light that doesn’t bode to well for YouTube’s defense.