Video
The phenomenon of Susan Boyle, seen by millions of Britons on ITVs “Britains Got Talent,” has been a worldwide digital storm played out in sporadic installments on the Internet. Videos of her first performance in April – “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables” – have been watched more than 220 million times, according to Internet video research firm Visible Measures.
Boyles semifinals performance over the weekend showed the craze is far from over. Her version of “Memory” from “Cats” has been the most popular YouTube video of the week in the U.S., the U.K., and just about everywhere else. Visible Measures counts its total views at 16.8 million – a pace nearly as rapid as that for “I Dreamed a Dream.”
Though millions will tune in to the show in Britain, the much larger Boyle audience around the globe will witness the last act on YouTube or other video sharing platforms. The 47-year-old church volunteer from Blackburn, Scotland, will sing again Saturday (ready your mouse for clicking around 5:00 p.m. EDT), and whether she wins will be decided by viewer votes on Sunday (also around 5:00 p.m. EDT).
But depending on your perspective, Susan Boyle has been either a runaway hit or a boat missed: While Boyle mania has been a reflection of both the incredible growth of online video as a center of global culture, its also endemic of media companies struggle to fully leverage viral popularity.
The production company FremantleMedia Enterprises holds the international digital rights to “Britains Got Talent” – and one would think theyd be doing cartwheels. Instead, some have suggested theyve left millions on the table.
The majority of the hits received by videos of Boyle were unofficial uploads by fans. None of the videos carried advertising.
FremantleMedia, which is owned by RTL Group, produces the show along with SyCo Tv and Simco Ltd. Before the Boyle bonanza struck, the companies reportedly tried – and failed – to come to an agreement with YouTube. FremantleMedia said to be interested in having ads roll before a video, while YouTube has favored banner ads and ads that appear at the bottom of a video.
A spokesman for FremantleMedia declined an interview request for this story.
Hunter Walk, a product manager for YouTube, credited “Britains Got Talent” and its producers for thinking “very new media” about their content and moving quickly to distribute it.
“To the shows credit, they immediately got the sense that their audience is worldwide and thats why they chose to quickly partner with YouTube to get this content out there,” said Walk. “They worked with us to get this content up immediately after broadcast.”
Added Walk: “They should be not only complimented for doing a great job on this, but are probably well-positioned to succeed at this scale in the future.”
The suggestion is that “Britains Got Talent” and its producers opted to utilize YouTube primarily as a promotional tool.
But that decision also may have minimized the revenue generated from a gigantic international audience. According to rough estimates by the Times of London based on online ad rates, the first Boyle video could have earned close to $2 million with minimal advertising on YouTube.
That may be a relatively small sacrifice in building “Britains Got Talent” – and “Americas Got Talent,” producers hope – into long-lasting juggernauts.
Eliot Van Buskirk, a writer for Wired.com who has covered this territory, thinks a unique opportunity was missed.
“This video of Susan Boyle is quickly becoming the most viewed video of all-time – and nobodys making money,” said Van Buskirk. “Its been sort of a growing pains stage of ad-supported media.”
Van Buskirk said the situation showed the need for content creators and distributors to have agreements in place for when a sensation strikes.