Viacom Sees Increased Web Traffic Following YouTube Spat

NEW YORK, March 2: Viacom saw traffic to its MTV, Comedy
Central and Nickelodeon websites increase over the past few weeks, since it
ordered YouTube to remove about 100,000 of its clips after the two companies
failed to reach a content distribution deal.

“Video streaming traffic on our sites has increased
dramatically, an important validation of our strategy,” Philippe Dauman, the
president and CEO of Viacom, was quoted as saying in the Financial Times.

According to the FT report, Comedy Central’s traffic rose
more than 90 percent, while MTV.com’s was up by more than 50 percent.
Nickelodeon’s web properties saw traffic increase by 30 percent.

In related news, Dauman said yesterday that he was “confident”
about Viacom’s digital revenues reaching $500 million this year, according to
Reuters, boosted by an expected hike in online advertising.