If you're a media company, then Google's
CBS
Marrying March Madness with YouTube is a great way for CBS to grab digital gold. In case you haven't heard, all of the major media companies -- Disney
That's the problem with YouTube, though, isn't it? There's so much violation in terms of copyright laws going on that the website has been the subject of litigation, most recently a legal attack made by, ironically enough, CBS's former partner in crime, Viacom. The latter's rejection of the platform makes sense, of course -- the company wants to protect its intellectual assets, since it plans on using other sites to monetize them in whatever way it sees fit.
I can see Viacom's point -- and so can Seth Jayson, who recently wrote a useful summary of the YouTube/copyright situation. But I can also understand CBS and its deal with YouTube. Simply put, it seems like a reasonably easy way for the media concern to make a big splash with its March Madness coverage. Google bought YouTube for one reason -- it attracts a heck of a lot of cyber-viewers. CBS, for its part, wants access to a heck of a lot of cyber-viewers. The concept is straightforward.
Maybe the Viacom split was a good idea -- imagine the internal struggle YouTube would have presented to the erstwhile conglomerate. It will be interesting to see how Google and YouTube deal with the Viacom action.
And yes, in the meantime, you can enjoy our take on the tournament season on our own site, with the Fool's special Stock Madness series.
Get some free Takes from the Fool:
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Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns shares of Disney. He doesn't follow the March Madness stuff, but he's aware of its impact. (He definitely follows Stock Madness 2007, though). As of this writing, he was ranked 11,749 out of 24,388 investors in the Motley Fool CAPS system. Don't know what CAPS is? Check it out. The Fool has a disclosure policy.