YouTube agrees UK music licencing deal
- Added:
- Jul 30, 2007
The Alliance handles royalties for 50,000 publishers, songwriters and composers and, while both the MCPS-PRS Alliance and YouTube declined to disclose details of the agreement, analysts suggest it could be worth tens of millions of pounds.
YouTube has been attacked by major media groups, who say that copyright piracy runs rampant over the site. Andrew Shaw, the Alliance’s managing director for broadcast and online said in an interview that YouTube was unique amongst broadcasters in that it is not fully aware of what content is on its site at any given time, but that it had agreed to explore and implement technology to search out music. The Alliance will distribute revenues to members based on estimated use.
Similar interim settlements have been reached in the United States, but this deal is believed to be the first full agreement.
It was announced just following the news that NBC Universal and News Corp have announced the name of their forthcoming rival video-sharing site, Hulu, and a trial date, indicating it is closer to a full launch. The companies said the new site would be begin a trial run in October.
The deal with YouTube would cover both user upload and content.