Viacom Wants 100,000+ Videos Removed From YouTube

Posted on February 2, 2007

Paid Content is reporting that Viacom wants all of its video clips for content produced by MTV, BET and Paramount removed from YouTube.com. There are at least 100,000 of Viacom's video clips currently on YouTube.

Exasperated by the failure to reach an agreement with Google and YouTube after months of negotiations, Viacom sent Google a letter today demanding that all Viacom material on YouTube-100,000 plus clips representing 1.2 billion streams, according to Viacom-be removed immediately. The clips span MTV Networks, BET and Paramount. Viacom wants a deal similar to those already reached by music labels and CBS. I'm not completely sure what the sticking points are on either side; Viacom and YouTube have managed a small marketing deal in the past but the media company also has made take down demands before. This, however, is the most sweeping.

A post on Search Engine Watch provides the text of the letter Viacom delivered to YouTube. In it Viacom claims YouTube and Google never put in the filtering technology they "promised repeatedly." They also say they have "130 authorized web sites where millions of fans visit and interact with our content."

A search for the keyword "MTV" on YouTube finds over 50,000 videos but this search misses many videos not labeled as being from MTV. A "BET" search shows some BET videos but it doesn't work because any video description that includes the word "bet" also gets included.