NBC finally woke up to the possibilities of the Internet

In a surprising reversal from their previous position, NBC has decided to promote their content on YouTube:

Online video company YouTube Inc. said yesterday that it will promote NBC's fall television lineup and sponsor a contest related to a popular network show, signaling a wave of marriages between old-media firms and fledgling video Web sites.

The deal follows an announcement by Warner Bros. on Monday that it will sell downloads of 200 films and TV episodes through Guba, another online video site. The partnerships seek to solve two problems for the entertainment industry: Old-media companies need popular Internet channels to fight declining TV and movie-theater viewership, and Internet video start-ups need a revenue stream to capitalize on their exploding popularity.

Previously NBC had demanded that YouTube remove their content from it's site:

YouTube attracted attention this year for spreading a popular online video that was illegally plucked from NBC's "Saturday Night Live" program. The clip depicted comedians rapping in a skit called "Lazy Sunday" and as it spread, it helped thousands of Internet users learn that they could share video as easily as forwarding an e-mail.

At the time, NBC executives demanded that YouTube remove the video from its site. But then, seeing its popularity, NBC posted the same video on its own Web site. "The fact that ["Lazy Sunday"] virally spread like wildfire, that clearly told us something -- that we could maybe duplicate that and create promos that people could share. The mechanism was there," said John Miller, chief marketing officer for NBC Universal Television Group. Now, he said, "we want to fully embrace the viral activity that YouTube embraces."

Read the rest here.

I'm glad to see that the networks might start getting it that the Internet is not their enemy and that content should be made freely available. If you're worried about revenue, how about product placement? That way it can't be edited out, like a commercial can. It is in their best interest to get as many people interested in their content so that interest spreads by word of mouth