Boyle's Back, But Talent Still Lacks YouTube Juice

This story was written by Robert Andrews.

It was a wobbly performance, less assured than her storming debut appearance, but Britain's Got Talent darling Susan Boyle returned to the show for Sunday's semi-final, winning a public vote to go through to next weekend's big final.

Though Boyle now looks to be the odds-on favorite to take the spoils, the broadcasters involved are still yet to seriously profit from the Scotswoman's recent fame. The NYT says "the production companies and YouTube worked through the weekend on a more comprehensive deal (that) would enable FremantleMedia to place ads against unofficial copies of the show using YouTube's 'Content ID' system" - but that's actually the deal the production company and the video site already inked four weeks ago (we reported here), which lets Fremantle "claim" copies of Talent clips on which to place its ads; those terms apply only internationally, where Fremantle own the rights.

At home in the UK, where ITV (LSE: ITV) owns the rights, there's also no change, the broadcaster told paidContent:UK on Monday, with "full monetization (taking place) through ITV.com"; most of the Talent video views come from overseas, ITV said. ITV.com video clips include wraparounds for Talent's TV sponsor Dominos and pre-rolls from ITV.com advertisers. Even overseas, Fremantle isn't yet seriously working its YouTube ad opportunitythe NYT says its text overlays link only back to itself, but none of the Boyle clips showed any ads at all when I viewed them via a U.S. proxy.

By Robert Andrews