July 12, 2013, 11:02 AM
At Sun Valley, Google Executives Give a Shout Out for Apple
By William Launder
While speculation swirls at this year’s Allen & Co. investor conference about John Malone’s plans to shake up the U.S. cable industry, Google executives say they’re going about business as usual here in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Salar Kamangar, senior vice president for YouTube and video, said Google is having “lots of discussions” with content companies, such as television networks, as YouTube looks to further expand ad revenue.
That on its own isn’t surprising for the Web video giant. But the talks highlight an increasingly key theme at the Allen & Co. conference that’s separate from the high-profile deal making that the summer gathering is famous for: how traditional media outlets try to monetize content they make available to digital video outfits such as YouTube, Netflix and Hulu.
Noting the trend, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt said a lot more tech executives are on hand at this year’s conference than in previous years. He added that Google’s sometimes prickly relationship with Apple improved over the past year, following “lots and lots of meetings” between when he described as two “proud” and “well-run companies.”
In what’s become an annual routine at the conference, Mr. Schmidt and his team spoke to reporters Thursday afternoon as other participants dashed back from bike rides and tennis games.
The discussion was briefly interrupted as Apple CEO Tim Cook passed by the crowd, prompting Google’s Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora to shout for Mr. Cook to stop for a photo. Mr. Cook quietly complied.
Mr. Kamangar, meanwhile, noted that YouTube had over the past year boosted ad-revenue supported payments to YouTube content partners by 60%. He attributed the gains in large part to YouTube’s “TrueView” ad model, which grants payments for YouTube advertisers only in the event that a viewer clicks on a commercial.
“We’re delighted,” Mr. Kamangar said of YouTube’s digital ad growth, stopping short of saying if the online platform is now profitable but saying the business is still in “growth” phase. However, there’s still no plan to break out YouTube’s financial performance, the Google executives said.
Google is attempting to position YouTube in an increasingly crowded market where rivals such as Netflix are simultaneously betting heavily on big-budget original series such as “House of Cards” and “Arrested Development.” But YouTube, which has also invested hundreds of millions of dollars to launch and promote channels based on traditional and fledgling media brands, will continue to take a different approach, Mr. Kamangar said.
“There aren’t any obvious opportunities for us to make a concentrated bet on particular shows,” he said. Rather, “we want to put more marketing into shows that [already] matter.”
In doing so, Mr. Kamangar would be addressing the concerns of some YouTube video partners who have complained that Google has in the past done too little to help promote their content and help them attract more advertising dollars.
Meanwhile, the executives talked up the potential benefits to YouTube offered by Google Fiber, a high-speed broadband system the company is testing in several U.S. cities. Mr. Arora said the experiment is helping “trigger a whole cycle of innovation” around broadband technology, which could help address surging demand for high-speed data as more consumers turn to the Internet for bandwidth-intensive video.
That doesn’t mean Google sees itself competing with the same kinds of pay-TV distributors that Mr. Malone may hope to disrupt if he moves forward with potential plans to consolidate the cable industry. Mr. Schmidt dismissed a suggestion that Google could expand Google Fiber in the same way that telecom operators have done in recent years, putting fresh competition on traditional landline cable operators. “Why would we want to do what someone else is doing?” he said.
While speculation swirls at this year’s Allen & Co. investor conference about John Malone’s plans to shake up the U.S. cable industry, Google executives say they’re going about business as usual here in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Salar Kamangar, senior vice president for YouTube and video, said Google is having “lots of discussions” with content companies, such as television networks, as YouTube looks to further expand ad revenue.
That on its own isn’t surprising for the Web video giant. But the talks highlight an increasingly key theme at the Allen & Co. conference that’s separate from the high-profile deal making that the summer gathering is famous for: how traditional media outlets try to monetize content they make available to digital video outfits such as YouTube, Netflix and Hulu.
Noting the trend, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt said a lot more tech executives are on hand at this year’s conference than in previous years. He added that Google’s sometimes prickly relationship with Apple improved over the past year, following “lots and lots of meetings” between when he described as two “proud” and “well-run companies.”
In what’s become an annual routine at the conference, Mr. Schmidt and his team spoke to reporters Thursday afternoon as other participants dashed back from bike rides and tennis games.
The discussion was briefly interrupted as Apple CEO Tim Cook passed by the crowd, prompting Google’s Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora to shout for Mr. Cook to stop for a photo. Mr. Cook quietly complied.
Mr. Kamangar, meanwhile, noted that YouTube had over the past year boosted ad-revenue supported payments to YouTube content partners by 60%. He attributed the gains in large part to YouTube’s “TrueView” ad model, which grants payments for YouTube advertisers only in the event that a viewer clicks on a commercial.
“We’re delighted,” Mr. Kamangar said of YouTube’s digital ad growth, stopping short of saying if the online platform is now profitable but saying the business is still in “growth” phase. However, there’s still no plan to break out YouTube’s financial performance, the Google executives said.
Google is attempting to position YouTube in an increasingly crowded market where rivals such as Netflix are simultaneously betting heavily on big-budget original series such as “House of Cards” and “Arrested Development.” But YouTube, which has also invested hundreds of millions of dollars to launch and promote channels based on traditional and fledgling media brands, will continue to take a different approach, Mr. Kamangar said.
“There aren’t any obvious opportunities for us to make a concentrated bet on particular shows,” he said. Rather, “we want to put more marketing into shows that [already] matter.”
In doing so, Mr. Kamangar would be addressing the concerns of some YouTube video partners who have complained that Google has in the past done too little to help promote their content and help them attract more advertising dollars.
Meanwhile, the executives talked up the potential benefits to YouTube offered by Google Fiber, a high-speed broadband system the company is testing in several U.S. cities. Mr. Arora said the experiment is helping “trigger a whole cycle of innovation” around broadband technology, which could help address surging demand for high-speed data as more consumers turn to the Internet for bandwidth-intensive video.
That doesn’t mean Google sees itself competing with the same kinds of pay-TV distributors that Mr. Malone may hope to disrupt if he moves forward with potential plans to consolidate the cable industry. Mr. Schmidt dismissed a suggestion that Google could expand Google Fiber in the same way that telecom operators have done in recent years, putting fresh competition on traditional landline cable operators. “Why would we want to do what someone else is doing?” he said.
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