SACRAMENTO, California: Online video-sharing and community networking portal YouTube has signed a deal with Digital Music Group Inc. to make available to its members some 4,000 hours of video content, including well known television shows.
Digital Music, which owns or controls digital publishing rights of television episodes like Gumby, I Spy, My Favorite Martian and Peter Gunn, also owns such rights for music and films.
The financial details of the deal were not made public, but it is understood that Digital Music will be entitled to a portion of revenue from ads that YouTube will show on the web pages featuring these programs. The content will be offered free to registered YouTube users.
The deal provides for YouTube to use a filtering technology to identify songs for which Digital Music has the rights, but are being posted on the site without authorization in videos.
Mitchell Koulouris, chief executive officer of Digital Music, said, "We're very excited to introduce our video and controlled-publishing music catalogs to the largest audience for video content available on the internet. Not only is YouTube helping to promote independently owned content but will also provide a new revenue source for DMGI through online advertising."
