State of Local

A lot of media companies post their video on YouTube, and they do it for several reasons.

First, they’re often able to create a “channel” in which they can share ad revenue with YouTube. That certainly makes sense. And many companies believe that having a presence on YouTube is good branding, and might lead people to the video who otherwise wouldn’t visit the home site. Once again, not a bad idea.

But I’ve heard some execs argue that YouTube is great because it “protects” your videos from being downloaded. If that’s your motivation, then you’re in real trouble.

There are literally dozens of web sites and programs which allows users to download video off of YouTube, Google Video and other sites. Mashable has a rundown of some of the best known solutions, but there are many more available.

Then there are sites such as Mogulus.com, which allows users to search for and aggregate YouTube video into a “TV Channel” which can be streamed on someone’s web site.

That’s the thing with video. If someone wants your clips bad enough, they’ll figure out a way to use the videos in ways you might not have planned.

While that might be frustrating, it’s also an opportunity. Make it as easy as possible for your users to share, mash and even download your video. At the bare minimum, don’t include video clips on your site without also including an easy way to embed and share the clips, YouTube style.

But also think about ways in which you can also allow people to download video. Celebrity interviews, cooking segments from your morning show, Q&As done specifically for the web site. There are all sorts of videos that are ripe for downloading, and if the clips include an ad and are bugged with your branding, then there’s much less chance that someone will use the video without proper credit.

I’m not arguing that I should be able to download my local 10pm newscast to my laptap (although that would be great). I’m arguing that there are lots of instances where letting video go free can bring back people to your web site to see what’s new. Allowing some of your video to go free isn’t any more dangerous than posting it on YouTube. It’s just a bit more scary.