Dr. Neil Hair

How amusing, Microsoft suddenly woke one morning to find YouTube had millions of visitors and the potential for even more millions in revenue. Its response? Soapbox. Too little too late I'm afraid – another great example of the power of mindshare. When people think internet tv they think YouTube. It does pose an interesting quandary for marketers however, how do you take mindshare from a massively popular company of the people like YouTube? The answer as far as I can see is specialized content. Should Microsoft want to get into the game of serious tv they should throw some money at it. And throw some real money into it. Target a specific market that YouTube will find hard to emulate – paid content perhaps (particularly as YouTube is yet to really define its commercial business model). Interesting times for internet TV. I guess we can always wait for YouTube to be sued by those idiots who see it threatening copyright infringement (rather than building a fan base for obscure programming and thus a tangible relationship with people it would never otherwise have realized existed).