Following Google's acquisition of YouTube on October, 9, 2006 for $1.65 billion, there has been a focus on the Mountain View's company strategy into the video brand advertising market. Research firm Gartner says that Google must first get copyright issues out of the way, before it can transform YouTube via a business plan into a lucrative revenue generator. Gartner's Adrew Frank, Research Director and Allen Weiner, Managing VP have evaluated the acquisition and are advising both premium content providers and advertisers not to jump in, but wait until Google/YouTube create a safe heaven for advertisers and premium content.

"The hype and the speculation that preceded the Google-YouTube deal underplayed one issue that will not go away: A significant amount of content on YouTube includes copyrighted material, often lifted from broadcast TV, DVDs and CDs (for soundtracks). Brand advertisers, in the main, are unwilling to place their marketing messages alongside (or in some cases inside) stolen or controversial material. YouTube claims to be poised to deploy technology that roots out copyrighted material. But such efforts have been largely unsuccessful, marred by both false positives (where legal content is deemed to be copyrighted) and significant violations that slip through the cracks," stated Gartner.

Adrew Frank and Allen Weiner have stressed that the evolution of YouTube must not impact its community and brand, the alienation of YouTube's existent audience would undoubtedly prove detrimental to the business.

"YouTube's business relationships with media companies - including Warner Music, NBC, CBS, Sony BMG and Universal Music - provide a tantalizing opportunity for Google to extend its core AdSense network into premium video content of very high value to advertisers. This may well have been the primary motivation behind this deal. Before Google and YouTube can achieve the payout, they must prove they have a cure for the copyright malady. We expect they will announce a solution soon," stated Gartner.