NBC finding success in preventing unlicensed videos on web
NBC is finding limited success in preventing its broadcasts to be shown without permission on sites like YouTube.
The company is seeing unprecedented success at removing unauthorized videos posted to the Web and cited last month’s Olympic Games and the recent SNL skit with actress Tina Fey as proof. More than 99 percent of all the Internet video views of the Olympic Games in Beijing were watched on NBC.com or NBCOlympics.com as opposed to on the likes of YouTube or Dailymotion, according to Rick Cotton, NBC’s general counsel.
Fey’s impersonation of Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin was a smash hit. Within minutes of NBC’s airing of the show, attempts were made to post copies of the show to YouTube. It’s unclear, however, whether any of the full-length copies of the skit actually made it on to YouTube. All that is certain is that some clips of TV news coverage of the skit, featuring only snippets from the show, were available.
