U2 Live Concert Is Window Into YouTube Revenue Stream

(MoneyWatch)  U2 and YouTube finally leveraged the synergy of their names on Sunday night in the name of live-streaming, broadcasting the band's show at the Rose Bowl over YouTube. One of the bigger events in YouTube history -- by some reports 2.5 million watched it live, and another almost 400,000 have now watched the on-demand version -- it also showed the potential for YouTube to build revenue through such focused events, in a win-win that's much better, and much more, well, in tune with users than the streaming video ads that make up the bulk of YouTube's revenue stream and often closely ape untargeted TV advertising. (It should be noted that YouTube has never asked consumers to pay for the video they consume, even for a high-profile event like this.)

As media breaks into niches, many of them, of course, not anywhere near the size of U2's "niche", YouTube could become the go-to place for many events that draw passionate fans, but not necessarily enough of them to be viable on TV. TV also has another handicap which YouTube needs to exploit now: even digital TV doesn't yet offer the interactive capabilities of the Internet, allowing people to buy product related to their passion. There's money to be made here, YouTube.

That said, as difficult as it was, from a technical perspective, to pull off the U2 concert, its revenue-generation gizmos were surprisingly low-key. The official home page of the concert, offered the usual -- links to Amazon and iTunes to buy U2 stuff, and an "Ad" button, clickable at any point during the concert, to buy the current album. Maybe this was by design -- as, at least according to official press release, both parties seemed more interested in making history than money -- but there are other ways, going forward, for these YouTube events to leverage the merchandising opportunities surrounding them more robustly.

As the band plans, of course, to sell a DVD of this concert tour, allowing pre-orders of it off the official home page seems obvious. U2 and YouTube didn't do that, which is a missed opportunity. From what I've seen of the stream (and having seen the concert live, in Giants Stadium), the filming of Sunday's concert didn't just consist of a couple of strategically-positioned cameras but was pretty much a DVD-ready presentation, save for a little editing (and better resolution when the concert was blown up to the full-screen). With the audiences appetite wettened, it's a great time to make the sale.

That's just a quibble, really. In the main, this was a great event, and a great window into the still largely untapped potential of YouTube as a money-making machine.

Previous coverage of YouTube at BNET Media:

• YouTube's New "Find Your Friends" Feature a Little Too Friendly
• The Ties That Bind Google, YouTube and Media Companies
• YouTube Decides to Dance the Hulu