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The Mainichi Shimbun reports that Japanese broadcasters are outraged that people might actually be watching clips of their broadcasts on video-sharing site YouTube:
Is NHK afraid that sharing a brief clip of Spoo ("Supu" is a romanization of the Japanese transliteration of the character's name) would somehow depress sales of Spoo DVD's? If anything, it would boost them, serving as a quick, free commercial for the show. (And while I'm unaware of the legal intracacies at play here, given that NHK is a public television channel, shouldn't its content be shareable by the public?)
A program director with any creativity or initiative would see YouTube for what it really is: a golden opportunity to get free publicity for his shows, while also getting free, valuable market research on which shows are the most popular. Heck, NHK could even upload clips of pilot shows on its own, to gauge audience feedback. How sad that it's rejected that path in favor of an outdated, old-media response.
FOLLOW-UP:
Via 3yen, Mari at Watashi to Tokyo gives us the inside scoop on Spoo. The original clip (it's back online!) from the "Okasan to Issho" show featured two people drawing pictures of Spoo. But as fate would have it, this rather poor likeness, drawn by performer Shoko Haida, quickly caught on as an ironic reference with the snarky hipsters on 2channel, a popular Japanese Internet forum, and the web parodies began. The Spoo sketch seems to have become the Japanese equivalent of Western net phenomena like the Star Wars Kid or the Numa Numa guy.
NHK may be upset about teens and young adults mocking part of its kiddie show. But pulling down the original video won't solve that problem: the parodies, which of course are not NHK's copyrighted content, are still online. Here's a few: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. NHK's hostile response, therefore, can be due to nothing other than sheer spite.
ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
The best part of the original Spoo clip is the way the other guy can't stop laughing at how horrible Shoko's drawing is. And it becomes even funnier when mashed up with the Simpsons. Be sure to catch Lisa and Bart's reactions at the end.
YET ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
Via the New York Times, here's a great example of how YouTube can help the TV networks determine whether a show will be popular.
The Mainichi Shimbun reports that Japanese broadcasters are outraged that people might actually be watching clips of their broadcasts on video-sharing site YouTube:
The Japanese media, sensing its proprietary material is being illegally reproduced, appears to be swiftly abandoning its heretofore hands-off position toward YouTube. NHK recently contacted the site's operators to demand that a video clip of the children's song "Supu no Ekaki Uta" that had been broadcast on May 30 installment of the "Okasan to Issho" TV show, be removed.Uh, yeah. Things got to that point around the time the VCR was invented, about a quarter-century ago. NHK's (and other stations') hostile reaction to clips of their shows popping up on YouTube is dumb, dumb, dumb. I can't really see why they're bothered by the phenomenon at all.
..."Once, TV would broadcast a segment and that was the end of it," recalls a program director. "But now things have come to the point that anybody can watch things anytime and anywhere...."
Is NHK afraid that sharing a brief clip of Spoo ("Supu" is a romanization of the Japanese transliteration of the character's name) would somehow depress sales of Spoo DVD's? If anything, it would boost them, serving as a quick, free commercial for the show. (And while I'm unaware of the legal intracacies at play here, given that NHK is a public television channel, shouldn't its content be shareable by the public?)
A program director with any creativity or initiative would see YouTube for what it really is: a golden opportunity to get free publicity for his shows, while also getting free, valuable market research on which shows are the most popular. Heck, NHK could even upload clips of pilot shows on its own, to gauge audience feedback. How sad that it's rejected that path in favor of an outdated, old-media response.
FOLLOW-UP:
Via 3yen, Mari at Watashi to Tokyo gives us the inside scoop on Spoo. The original clip (it's back online!) from the "Okasan to Issho" show featured two people drawing pictures of Spoo. But as fate would have it, this rather poor likeness, drawn by performer Shoko Haida, quickly caught on as an ironic reference with the snarky hipsters on 2channel, a popular Japanese Internet forum, and the web parodies began. The Spoo sketch seems to have become the Japanese equivalent of Western net phenomena like the Star Wars Kid or the Numa Numa guy.
NHK may be upset about teens and young adults mocking part of its kiddie show. But pulling down the original video won't solve that problem: the parodies, which of course are not NHK's copyrighted content, are still online. Here's a few: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. NHK's hostile response, therefore, can be due to nothing other than sheer spite.
ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
The best part of the original Spoo clip is the way the other guy can't stop laughing at how horrible Shoko's drawing is. And it becomes even funnier when mashed up with the Simpsons. Be sure to catch Lisa and Bart's reactions at the end.
YET ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
Via the New York Times, here's a great example of how YouTube can help the TV networks determine whether a show will be popular.
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