Film Funding Blog

Television trade publication TVBizWire is reporting the following tidbit about YouTube:

YouTube Ad Revenue Falls Short for Google WSJ

Worldwide revenue from YouTube, which is likely to total about $200 million in 2008, has fallen short of Google’s expectations, the Wall Street Journal reports. Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt admitted some big advertisers are uncomfortable with the idea of their ads appearing next to amateur videos and said the company hasn’t quite figured out how to best format video advertising on the Web site, the newspaper says.

Admittedly, this comes as a shock to virtually no one. At the time that Google acquired YouTube, there was no clear business model that could justify the hefty price tag for the acquisition.  As the online ad market continues its current deceleration, I am sure this is a topic that Google will be address in future earnings announcements.

For filmmakers, this is probably not a positive note. It may mean that YouTube will have even less interest in providing filmmakers with compensation for popular content that appears on the site.