Trible-Win Deal of Susan Boyle

Two months after YouTube user "BritainsSoTalented" uploaded Susan Boyle's performance at Britain's Got Talented 2009, the video has accumulated 67 million hits, currently 14th of the top viewed video worldwide. It took "evolution of dance" , almost three years to reach 121 million hits and the No.1 place, while Susan made it in an amazing speed just as her voice.

Off YouTube's honor, however, she lost in the final. A Times article is saying that both YouTube and the production company, owned by judge Simon Cowell lost as well, since they failed to reach an agreement on sharing the advertising revenue from YouTube exposure. This article says that ITV wants YouTube to redirect users to their website rather than sharing advertising revenue with YouTube because they can get better offer from domestic advertisers on their own websites. I am not sure how they negotiated eventually. Now, YouTube puts a text layer ad on the top viewed Susan video( user uploaded ) and ITV is running a Britain's Got Talented show channel as a partner, without ad banner around it, just promotion of the show

Scholars have already predicted that one advancement of video streaming websites is that it can distribute content internationally with no geographic limitations. Then, the interesting question is , who really benefits from the instant global distribution when website as YouTube achieved this capability?

In Susan Boyle's case, definitely, the performer does; rumor says she is going to sing in U.S. soon. Though YouTube , ITV and the production company did not get the financial profits initially, they are still benefiting from the video. YouTube now could once again tell its advertisers that only YouTube has the ability to make you over-night success, which might be helpful to transfer YouTube's reputation into into actual profits, which it needs indeed now. For ITV, the success proves that for reality show format, Idol is out and really Talent is in. They probably can sell the format for a better price. So, all of them definitely get something from this YouTube phenomenon, maybe not exactly what they want, but contributing to their reputation.

My question is, then, how do the content owner outside U.S., can really make money out of YouTube's global distribution ability? Thinking about how many Indian diaspora, Chinese diaspora are there, how can Indian television station, Taiwan television station, Hong Kong television station, make some ad revenue from YouTube? As far as I know, those users who are uploading Chinese programming on YouTube are very popular, always among the most subscribed users, contributing top viewed videos. We as audiences need such content, and YouTube makes it so easy to distribute the content, then why the content owners are hesitating to set a partner relationship with YouTube? It is not only an extra revenue source but also a way to educate your audiences. I know Hong Kong's ATV and RTHK are uploading some of their programs now, and I just can not think about any pros of doing that.

Finally, Susan is really popular in Greater China area, here's a picture of a Taiwan parody show, ( in someway like Saturday Night Live), where the actor is impersonating Susan.