Marketing Pilgrim

The soon to be acquired, YouTube, has received a request from Viacom to remove videos of some Comedy Central shows.

The source said Viacom, owner of the Comedy Central cable network, had sent a letter last Friday requesting that some of its shows — including the popular “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” “The Colbert Report” and those from MTV Networks and BET — be purged from the site.

While some might start questioning the viability of YouTube – if they’ll continue to receive such requests – I tend to look at this as a positive for the company.

A positive, I hear you ask? If you think about it, each time YouTube receives one of these requests, it learns two things:

1. The videos in question are popular enough that the creators take the time to ask YouTube to remove them.

2. They know the content is of value to viewers and the creators, so they can turn the request into an opportunity to set-up a formal arrangement.

On the flip-side, the video creators get a free market research tool in YouTube. They get to test what works and what doesn’t, knowing that the moment their content becomes popular, they can contact YouTube and strike up a deal.

YouTube just became the new testing ground for any company’s video campaign!

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