The BBC is reporting that Viacom, the network behind MTV and many other major brands, has announced availability of a YouTube-style embeddable player for clips from their shows which can be inserted into third party websites. This follows their demand to YouTube to remove 100,000 of their videos, and the availability of such a player from Comedy Central in late 2006. This is interesting because it marks a change in the way that large media companies are thinking about new media.

The first point is that they are prepared to, to some extent, lose control of their content, in that they are enabling it to be displayed anywhere on the web. Whilst that has clear advantages (because of the viral growth possible with videos displayed on blogs and social networking profiles etc), it is not something that companies like Viacom have been prepared to do before. I could easily set up a splog or exploit site using the Viacom videos as free content. For obvious reasons Viacom would not want to be associated with such a site.

The second interesting point is that they have decided to go it alone, leaving the much higher viewing figures possible by using YouTube on the table. There are a few advantages for them in this. Firstly they maintain more control than otherwise over their content. They get better metrics; they can count how many times their video has been viewed, where it has been embedded, what country the viewers were in and whether they watched the video to the end. They decide, rather than viewers, which clips are posted on the internet. Most importantly, however, is the change in advertising model. By going it alone, Viacom may get fewer views of its videos, but it does keep the whole amount from the advertising rather than being forced to share it with YouTube or a similar service.

Ultimately, if Viacom can make itself an online content destination, this will result in more money for them, which would make this a very sensible move indeed.