Today’s Journal runs a piece on Google and the content biz. It’s behind the wall, but some good stuff:
… the farther Google ventures beyond the Web, the tougher the road gets — as its dealings with some big TV companies show….
…Google “didn’t show proper respect for us as potential partners,” says Larry Kramer, president of digital media at CBS. “We’re not just going to give this away for free.”…
… there are growing signs that Google is finished with the easy stuff. Its attempts to search other information — starting with books, TV and scholarly works — promise to be more costly and time-consuming than the simple Web searches that propelled its first years of growth….
…Google’s video-search quest is moving it toward possible competition with the cable-TV industry….
… Google surprised some broadcasters by telling them it was already building a digital database of their programs…. Rick Cotton, general counsel at General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, says Google’s “stunning approach” brought talks to a halt. “This is not the way one normally does business whether you’re an old company or a young one,” he says.
…Google’s chief executive, Mr. Schmidt, calls Google’s mission a long-term one. “It will take, current estimate, 300 years to organize all of the world’s information,” he says.
Thanks to reader Scott Kidder.