Scott Kirsner breaks the news in Variety that YouTube has complied with a request from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to take down clips of this year's Oscars ceremonies:
Several segments of the show, including host Ellen DeGeneres' opening monologue and musical numbers featuring Will Ferrell and Beyonce, had been among YouTube's most-viewed content this week. Ferrell's musical lament about how comedies never win Oscars, sung with Jack Black and John C. Reilly, had racked up more than 250,000 views on YouTube before it was replaced with the message "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences."
Ric Robertson, exec administrator for the Academy, said the organization had its content pulled "to help manage the value of our telecast and our brand."
The official Oscar.com Website, which is run as a joint venture of the Academy and Disney's ABC.com, features a five-minute clip of highlights from the three hour, 51 minute broadcast. That footage, along with "Thank-You Cam" videos from backstage, are preceded by ads.
But Robertson said that the ads weren't a factor: "Even if Oscar.com didn't have clips, we would have asked YouTube to take remove the excerpts."
And the award for most backward-thinking entertainment brand on the planet goes to… Link.
On his blog, Kirsner elaborates:
Ric Robertson from the Academy told me, essentially, that they prefer for people to watch (or tape or TiVo) the awards telecast. That's where all their revenue comes from (through a broadcasting deal with ABC), and they don't want to diminish the ratings by having too much video floating around the Internet. In fact, Robertson said that the scraps of video on the official Oscar.com site will disappear soon, too, to "whet people's appetite for next year's show." Interesting strategy…
Link.
Previously:
Reader comment: gtron says,
several hours later, this one still plays: Link. and it's on the most watched pages – so somebody is wrong –
