I think that the new Google announcement for YouTube sponsored videos is just great.

I was in a project very similar to this one once. It was a very advanced solution –in business terms- where ads and sponsored content could be bought online using simple tools. The rates were more expensive than YouTube’s but still would get to the Long Tail.

The technology process was extremely simple. A Ruby on Rails front-end could be built in weeks and we would use super-cheap COTS Linux boxes in a Hadoop cluster to not spend a lot in storage. The ads could be served through OpenX, also free and lightweight. Selling two ads a month over one year would be enough to generate ROI.

Unfortunately the sales department “paused” the project saying that they needed more time to think about it. It has been years and the project is still in someone’s desk waiting for approval. The truth is that it is very hard for old media folks to understand that in this new way of doing things not only users can publish their content but they can also create and pay for ads online.

It’s probably easier when you were born as a new media company, I guess.