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Viacom Web Traffic Spikes After Break With YouTube
The entertainment conglomerate said that traffic to its Web sites rose dramatically in the past month, after it demanded that the Google-owned video site remove more than 100,000 illegally posted clips. Traffic at Comedy Central's site was up more than 90% for the month, while MTV's site was up 50%, and Nickelodeon's increased 30%.
According to an article in the Financial Times, the company claims to have been "heartened"
by the support it has received from across the industry after asking YouTube to remove the clips last month. Viacom CEO Philip Dauman said the spikes in Web traffic "validated" the company's move against YouTube.
Old and new media companies are vying for as big a slice as possible of future digital revenues and negotiations with YouTube, for which Google paid more than $1.6bn last year, are seen as a key test owing to the video site’s dominant position.
Much of the content on YouTube is created by individuals but it remains unclear whether such user-generated content can attract the large amounts of advertising dollars that are shifting to the web. Professionally produced content may attract more advertisers.
