As media companies’ “frenemy”, David Eun is the Google’s goodwill ambassador to the wary camps in the TV, movie, publishing and local-media industries. In an interview with the LATimes, Eun, Google’s VP of Content Partnerships, insists the company isn’t interested in creating content to compete with traditional media. Aware that Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL are all developing original video programming, Eun, a former Time Warner and NBC executive, emphasizes Google deals to distribute MTV Networks clips on websites that run Google-brokered ads, and with CBS, UMG and others to distribute video on YouTube. His added proof of Google’s over-arching media industry beneficence: In Q3, Google paid $780 million out to partners in its AdSense program.
His heartfelt lament here: “When people say we’re to be feared, I never quite know what to make of that. You can always opt out: We never force you to work with us. We typically don’t do exclusive deals, so you’re never stuck working with us. And it’s public that in most cases we still give the majority of every dollar we create from a partnership to the partners, so you still get the lion’s share of the money. What about that sounds so unfriendly?” Well, if you put it that way…
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-- @ Media Week: Day 1: UBS: Sorrell On AnyThing And Everything; Google Is The “Frenemy”