YouTube Deals with CBS, Viacom Fall Through; NBC Warns on Copyrights

Mountain View, Calif. -- A deal that Mountain View-based Google's YouTube had been brokering with CBS, which would have put TV clips on the site in exchange for ad revenue, has fallen through, The Wall Street Journal reported. Google also offered Viacom a similar deal at the time of its $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube last year, but those talks also eventually faltered, the paper said. Google reportedly sought a five-year deal with CBS, and would have guaranteed $500 million in ad revenue. Although the larger pact did not materialize -- partly due to disagreements about the proposed deal's length -- the companies may still negotiate smaller agreements. Viacom recently demanded that YouTube remove over 100,000 of its copyrighted clips, and earlier this week announced a deal to license TV and film content to Joost, a start-up that streams TV to users' PCs. Separately, the Journal reported that the general council of NBC sent YouTube a letter last week demanding the company take steps to prevent copyrighted content from being posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117202467170614399-search.html?KEYWORDS=YouTube&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month (subscription required)
http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN2021579520070221