In recent weeks there have been many reports on failed negotiations between Google and content providers like Viacom, CBS, NBC, etc. There are several reasons for this.

The first and foremost is the business model. Content providers are not happy with the revenue sharing model that Google offers to them. In fact, some of them have tried to create their own channels but have not been able to gain critical mass. They have even tried to jointly support third parties like Joost to host their content. Google continues to be in the picture because, as the WSJ reports, they have 30 million monthly visitors looking for content. With so many content providers trying to attract an audience, aggregators like Google provide them with great reach.

Digital rights management and ownership of content continues to be a big worry. This technology has not progressed enough to allay fears of the content providers. They would like illegal content to be identified and pulled down from the sites. Platform or access providers like Google has not been able to effectively monitor and manage illegal content on their sites.

User generated content. Although most of the content within these sites started off as user generated, currently a significant percentage of the content is owned by large media companies. If podcasts, videocasts, blogs and wikis attract a large set of creators and readers/visitors, we may see the emergence of other portals with access to users. Apple has managed to create its own platform with unique and exclusive access. Similarly, video game platform providers such as Xbox, Playstation and others have such access and could potentially use it to stream content. In the case of online games and Salesforce.com’s AppExchange, by allowing the users to create their own mods and applications, these platforms are able to attract users.