When 2010 came to a close, a mashup called “Bed Intruder” topped the list as the most-watched independent clip on YouTube. And Mashable just gave it the award for the “Best Internet Meme” of the year.
It all began with an interview by WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Alabama on an attempted rape story. Antoine Dodson, who helped rescue his sister, had plenty to say to the would-be rapist, still on the loose. His interview was turned into a catchy auto-tune song that spread like wildfire across the internet — drawing attention to the original clip on WAFF’s website.
“Within 24 hours, the traffic impact was huge,” says Pat LaPlatney, VP of digital at Raycom Media, which owns the station. “There was a material impact on WAFF traffic for about 30 days. (It) stayed a top 5 viewed story and video for about 2 months after it first aired.”
On YouTube, the mashup hit 64 million views over the months that followed, and LaPlatney said the station asked YouTube several times to remove it — to no avail. Interestingly, the original WAFF-TV clip was subsequently posted on YouTube, too — not by WAFF — where it remains today with 29 million views.
Earlier this week, we posted a story on the Columbus Dispatch, which convinced YouTube to remove the illegal copy of the viral “Homeless Golden Voice” clip after 12 million views. Both these cases illustrate a challenge for local media. When a local clip has national potential — or even better, becomes a viral sensation — how do you maximize your revenue while protecting your copyright? YouTube generates a fraction of the revenue, usually, compared to the same clip hosted on a local media site. But Lost Remote reader Jonathan Paula makes an interesting point in comments on the “Homeless Voice” story:
“If it were my video (and I’ve done this dozens of times in the past) – I would have had it pulled immediately. Plain-and-simple, intellectual copyright infringement is a terrible thing to condone. That being said, The Dispatch REALLY should have had their own copy on YouTube – there’s just no way of any off-site video ever going viral. The infrastructure just isn’t in place anywhere besides YouTube.”
In other words, YouTube makes video viral, especially for local media companies that don’t have the distribution otherwise. Note this doesn’t have to be an argument for posting all video on YouTube — just clips with the highest potential to reach a larger audience through viral distribution, capturing incremental revenue along the way.
Of course, knowing what could go viral in advance is a bit like predicting Seattle weather — you never know what’s going to happen.
By the way, The Dispatch did post its own copy on YouTube, but days later when the viral window had closed. As of this writing, the clip has been viewed just 4,800 times.
