On a day when iPhone app madness has swept the planet (or planet blog at least), there is a bunch of news involving YouTube. First – Viacom today issued a statement about recent court ruling that ordered YouTube to hand over its user data to the media giant. Except they are lying and so wanted the data. In other YouTube news, Liz Gannes reports that YouTube is going to allow geosearching its videos which should help with local search. On the bad news front, looks like they will be able to monetize only 4% of their videos.

There is no love lost between Google and Microsoft. Same holds true for Viacom. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that Microsoft and Viacom have announced a deal that’s essentially You scratch my back and I scratch yours — and with about $500 million worth of scratching. Here is a precis of the news announcement:

What Microsoft Gets:

• Microsoft will get video from Viacom and all related properties like Comedy Central and it will be available on MSN and XBox 360. Microsoft already distributes a lot of content from Viacom.
• Microsoft will get casual games from Viacom.
• Microsoft’s Atlas will be the ad server for Viacom. Viacom will provide unsold display advertising inventory on its digital sites for Microsoft to sell and serve.

What Viacom Gets:

• Money. A lot of it. “Microsoft will buy advertising on Viacom broadcast and online networks over a five-year period and the companies will work together on promotions and sponsorships for MTV Networks and BET Networks award shows.”

Who is the winner?
The five-year-deal is pegged at a base value of $500 million, though the two sides are not talking precise financial terms. I suspect it’s going to favor Viacom.

Viacom doesn’t have to spend anything and at the same time it is getting advertising dollars and more distribution for their content. I get a feeling that, going forward, this is going to become a template deal for all large media companies with content assets. For them it’s a green light to pillage Microsoft’s overflowing coffers.

Deals like this will increase the pressure on Google to do similar ones with other content providers, mostly to thwart Microsoft’s advertising ambitions.

The Writers Guild of America is on strike, holding back new episodes of TV favorites like “The Daily Show” in protest of their lack of a cut of digital revenues. Yesterday, NewTeeVee spoke with Tim Carvell, one of that show’s writers, at a picket line in Manhattan. Being told their online work is “promotional” just doesn’t cut it anymore, he argued:

We understand that it’s a fairly new technology, but that doesn’t seem to prevent them from promising investors specific dollar amounts that they’re going to make off of it. It didn’t prevent them from valuing their Internet content at $1 billion when they sued YouTube.

Continue reading on NewTeeVee.

It is becoming increasingly obvious: Big media companies (content owners) are lining up against YouTube & Google (GOOG), and are coming up with their own strategies for online video. Today, NBC (GE) confirmed to NewTeeVee that it pulled its content off YouTube in a shift towards its own service, a joint venture with News Corp. (NWS) called Hulu.

Last week, after Google launched a new way to identify and prevent copyright infringement, a newly formed coalition said it had come up with its own anti-piracy proposals. There is a clearly fear of Google on the part of large content companies, while at the same time, a desire to build their own online video properties.

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