The BBC, along with its commercial arm BBC Worldwide, are set to sign deals with Google allowing BBC content to be distributed on Google Video and YouTube, reports Media Guardian (registration required).
If it comes off, it’s likely that the deal will mirror those already undertaken by some of the big US networks. We can expect to see branded channels on YouTube, containing clips of BBC properties. Worldwide’s participation means that the Corporation could see some revenue income from the deal. On YouTube, that could mean a share of the money generated by on-page advertising, while there is also the possibility of using Google Video’s payment gateways to charge for high quality DRM’d downloads.
At the same time, I’d expect that any deal that gets signed will include promises by Google to crack down on copyright infringing clips uploaded by enthusiastic fans.
In the wake of last week’s licence fee settlement news, it’s possible that this route could see a means of saving money in terms of how to deliver video content over the web. Currently, the BBC hosts its own RealVideo streams to show clips (and, occasionally, whole episodes) of their shows. Imagine the money savings if all that hosting, and the technical support necessary, was handled by a company who specialises in high performance video delivery.
Another advantage to this route is that, unlike the BBC’s long promised iPlayer, Google’s video outlets work on Macs as well as PCs. While the iPlayer is set to use filesharing (P2P) technology to help dilute the bandwidth cost of delivering high-quality video, the first release of the software is set to be PC only. The same is true of Joost, a forthcoming P2P internet TV system being developed by the same people who created filesharing platform Kazaa and internet telephone system Skype.
It may be a while before us Mac users can get great BBC downloads through their preferred route — but if a deal with Google comes off, at least we’ll be able to see some of the results of our licence fee payments…
