Nobody is Making Money Online from Susan Boyle Video (Yet)
Unless you lived in an exceptionally dark cave in the last two weeks, you probably weren't able to escape the Susan Boyle phenomenon. According to some metrics, over 100 million people have watched the immaculately edited video of the 'frumpy' 47-year-old's performance on Britain's Got Talent (BGT) by now. While this is most definitely an interesting cultural phenomenon, the Times today also reports that neither ITV, the network that shows BGT, nor YouTube have really been able to directly profit from this huge hit because the network and YouTube have been arguing about the terms of their advertising agreement.
ITV, according to the Times Online, wants to run pre-roll ads before its videos, but YouTube, even though it is still highly unprofitable, is still resisting this move because, unsurprisingly, its research has shown that pre-roll ads are very unpopular with its users. Interestingly, on its own site, ITV features a sponsored player, but no pre-roll ads.
It is also noteworthy that the most popular version of the video (with about 41 million views so far) was uploaded by a fan, BritainsSoTalented, and ITV doesn't even seem to have its own YouTube channel.
So, how much money did ITV lose so far? About $1.87 million, according to the Times Online's Dan Sabbagh, based on the assumption that a TV network could get about $20 to $35 per 1000 viewers, which is not completely unreasonable, though we have also seen far lower numbers around $12 and less. Using those numbers, ITV probably lost about $1 million, which is still quite a lot of money, especially considering that this is just pure, additional profit for the network. But then, few people have ever been able to turn a YouTube hit into direct income and most of the rewards come later in the form of recording contracts or endorsement deals.
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The maths seem extremely ambitious. As fas as I'm aware companies can buy Youtube placement via the Google Content Network.
Having used this for various accounts I have hardly ever come across a CPM higher than a few quid. And on social networks it is usually even lower.
Using the numbers from the Business Insider seems far more sensible to draw any conclusions from this.
And I think that shows more of an inability to monetise only video in general, rather than this specific video as a specific case.
Another thing that is overlooked is the non monetary value of this exposure. The clip has gone far beyond the normal audience (reaching new, potential viewers) and has engaged the viewers of the show.
... perhaps any such money should go to people who sing because they like to sing, not because they're told by society there's commercial potential to their avocation.... ;-)
If Susan Boyle doesn't make money on her video, the why should ITV make money on her?
Do they really need to make things so complicated?
Why can't they simply add a comment subtitle bar thing with a lead on over to their website, or do this on the youtube sidebar.
ITV don't need to make direct cash from this vid, they got unquantative exposure from this - make it clear that it came from ITV and watch the world flock on over.
Susan is the one with the talent so the companies should stop scrambling over the tidbits, it's pathetic.
This is very interesting. I saw her just recently, myself. Here sounds are interesting. Hopefully, ITV, BGT, and YouTube can resolve their differences with one another concerning how profits are going to be split up.
Hopefully an artist such as Susan will eventually benefit from the exposure. It is sad though that companies and marketing moguls take in so much money before a talented artist even gets a cent. Maybe artist Rights need to be rewrote. Who was it that put their album all online? Radiohead? http://electricbrains.com/electricbrainsnews.php
I think ITV should learn from this phenomenon. They should create special website/blog to bring this huge viewer for their profit. Since they will have a lot of those kind artist/program in the future
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i think it's a scam, many people are complaining
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