Startup Chatter by Donna Bogatin

The NBC-Universal love-hate relationship with YouTube continues, big time. What IS Google’s number one Web video destination good for? The in-bedroom “broadcast yourself” creation of Jeff Zucker’s nine year old son, for example, the NBC Universal CEO believes, but NOT the high-cost, high-production value, branded story-telling works of art the company he leads makes its money off of.

The biggest challenge facing broadcast networks online is the scourge of piracy, Zucker said today in a keynote conversation at the AdAge Digital Advertising conference in New York City.

Inadequate YouTube copyright protection mechanisms is one of the principal reasons the NBC-Fox Hulu.com joint venture is not partnering with Google, Zucker indicated. Zucker also underscored the need for NBC to “be in control of its own destiny.” By controlling the Hulu.com environment, NBC is able to guarantee high quality advertisers a “premium, safe-haven,” for the delivery of their high-quality brand messages.

After all, there are “only so many times you want to have your ad sitting next to a cat on a skate board, Zucker quipped.

Zucker hailed “tremendous” Hulu.com success with advertisers and consumers since its launch a few weeks ago, but did not provide any metrics to indicate how NBC quantifies “tremendous.”

Zucker did say broadcast networks are not mere “order takers” anymore. In an increasingly fragmented media world with ubiquitous distribution, NBC has to “work harder” with partners and forge agency and marketer relationships in developing “organic processes” for creating programming and platforms that advertisers want to be associated with.

Zucker is confident in the future of NBC’s value proposition, online and off. “The pipes work,” he assured. Not only does broadcast television aggregate large, mainstream audiences for communal, event programming–such as the upcoming Olympics–but the local TV station system offers the “best form of local community” Zucker asserted.

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