VentureBeat

Google Video is now paying MTV’s parent, Viacom, for video content, according to this AP story. This is significant because Google is the biggest online advertising network, and if you follow the logic, it will therefore most likely to be able to “monetize” these videos. If so, would this spill over to the masses of other amateurs, where Google would steal them from upstarts like YouTube with the promise that Google may help them make some cash. You’d think so, but Google has yet to prove itself as a great “community” site, and so the jury will be out for a while.

In a further reach for online video, Google Inc. will begin distributing clips from MTV Networks’ shows to other Web sites through its budding video service in a model that offers content creators a new source of distribution and revenue.

The deal announced Sunday will begin as a test later this month, offering 100 hours of programming from clips of “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,” “SpongeBob SquarePants” and MTV’s Video Music Awards. The partnership will expand video through Google’s advertising network to a variety of sites and is likely to spawn further such deals, making video a far more integral element of online advertising…

(Via Battelle)