Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

NBC, the television company behind Saturday Night Live, has told YouTube, the video sharing website, to remove the ‘Lazy Sunday’ skit that spread like wildfire across the Internet from their site. Needless to say that has caused an outcry from various sources claiming that NBC has shot itself in the foot (after finding its foot in the first place.)

As an Irishman, I’ve never seen an episode of Saturday Night Live, so I find the actions of NBC particularly stupid. The only reason why I was exposed to it was because of YouTube. If the clip never went live, then I would never have been exposed to it. NBC’s argument is that the clip is available on their website and via iTunes.

However, because I live in Ireland and use a Mac, I can’t seem to take advantage of either of those channels to view the clip. What this means is that NBC have cut me off as a potential customer because I can’t access their content. As a result of my not being able to access it, the likelihood of me purchasing a Saturday Night Live DVD is slim to remote.

This incident really highlights the stupidity of a lot of companies. The clip is free, yet NBC is attempting to make it as inaccessible as possible for people to view it. I thought the whole point was that TV companies wanted as many people as possible to watch their programming and then purchase it at a later date.

Beats me.

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