Sony and YouTube discuss content deal

But, as I observed in my earlier piece on YouTube and Disney, Google really gets the benefit here because it further legitimizes the platform. Not only that, but there's a nice competitive angle to a possible Sony deal as well. All the media companies that have deals with Google obviously will want to make the most of their respective partnerships. They'll presumably do all they can to market their YouTube presence and will go to extra lengths to keep ahead of the other guy's content.

From a business perspective, it would be nice to see YouTube's brand known for more than just user-generated content; maybe someday it'll be known as the domain where original movies are programmed, and where theatrical features are released to the web a couple months after they debut at the multiplex. The sky's the limit.

I think user-generated content is an important aspect of the web, and it can be leveraged as a great, cheap, efficient tool for both finding and incubating new talent (media companies have barely scratched the surface when it comes to the potential of recruiting talent from the web, in my opinion at least). Nevertheless, YouTube would be smart to continue to diversify away from that element as time goes on. Always keep it there, certainly, but look to content with differing types of quality as a way of modifying the model for making money.

And that's what this is really about. That buzzword that is never far from YouTube: Monetization. Shareholders of Google are still waiting for that Holy Grail to be unearthed. Maybe Sony will serve as yet another piece of the puzzle.

Disclosure: I own Disney; positions can change without notice.