YouTube began as a place where people could post home-made videos, but now it has become increasingly aggressive to promote more viewers and advertisers with striking deals to host movies and television shows.  YouTube is now emerging as a big competitor to entertainment companies such as Blockbuster Inc., Netflix, iTunes and Amazon.com Inc.  

Google Inc.’s YouTube is in the process of discussing with major movie studios ways they can stream movies on a rental basis.  YouTube is talking with Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, Sony Corp, Time Warner Inc. and a few others about charging for new titles on the YouTube site.  In some cases, these titles might be available on the site the same day that the movie comes out on DVD. 

For Hollywood, this move could represent a big step in attempt to offset its dwindling DVD sales with online revenue.  Movie studios have been pursing these kind of deals, as revenue from DVD sales has fallen more rapidly than they have anticipated.  Studio revenue from DVD sales would fall by about $850 million this year to $12.9 billion.  

YouTube and the studios are still debating how this whole process is going to work and how much revenue YouTube is going to give the studios.  Under current plans, 10,000 Google employees will test the service for a period of three months starting in September, but the trial has been postponed as negotiations drag on.  

Many consumers are not too trilled at watching a full-length movie on a computer screen, but if you think about it, it might be worth it.  The price would be about par with On-Demand movies from your TV and you could watch your computer screen anywhere at any time, not just from your home television.  This could be the next big online revenue center for advertisers and entertainment businesses.

As I was reading through Advertising Age Daily News Report, I came across this article about the first mobile marketing vehicle.  It was a very interesting and quite comical read, and I thought I would share it.  Doug Melville is a college graduate, who scored his first big job out of college driving a Wienermobile.  He was chosen along with 18 other people to drive the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile for one full year.  Doug, along with two other people who traveled inside the Weinermobile, got to spend 400 days traveling throughout the United States, doing plenty of press releases and volunteering at many events.  When people asked Doug what his title was, he told them with pride, “I am a hotdogger!”  Training was called “Hot Dog High” and consisted of marketing, PR, events, expenses, and how to handle the general public.  Once graduated, hotdoggers were sent off in their Weinermobiles doing interviews and local press releases for Oscar Mayer.  

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The nation’s labor force includes 54 million who do not have a college degree; and in that, 34 million have never been to college at all.  With technology growing at the speed of light, it is challenging to keep up with the educational qualifications necessary in the job market.  Without adults having the minimal requirements to secure a job, they can easily be passed up for someone who is significantly younger with a college degree.  America’s adult learners who do decide to go back to school, say in their mid-forties, are much more likely to get more out of their college education than eighteen year old students, right out of high school.

When I was in college, I choose to work with adult students in group projects, rather than “traditional students”, who didn’t want to do their share of the work.  I knew the older students were excited to be in class and amongst all their challenges, they appreciated the fact they were able to learn.  Whether enrolled in a traditional college, community college, online school, or trade school, kudos to you adults who have gone back to earn a college degree.  The workforce will be a much better place and it surely cannot hurt the economy.

http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/ReturntolearningApril2007.pdf