The NBA and Google Video have terminated their landmark partnership, which was announced to much ballyhoo earlier this year. All games, which had been previously available for a fee, have been pulled down from Google. This includes last year's NBA Finals. If you follow the links on this page, you will note that all of the games are gone.
In the meantime, the NHL and Google yesterday announced that hockey games are now available for free on Google Video. Even better, you can download them for your iPod. That's wonderful for consumers, but it points to Google's bigger problems when it comes to video.
My gut is that Google is having a lot of difficulty selling content on Google Video. If the NBA were making money with Google, you can bet they would have stayed there. In fact, they probably would have used it as a platform to promote their new League Pass Broadband service - but they didn't.
Now, enter YouTube. If Google can't sell video content on its own video property you can bet they will have the same challenge on the newest addition to their family. The only way they will make up their $1.6B is in advertising - provided the copyright issues don't kill YouTube first. Possible? For sure. But Google better hope that the Transient Web doesn't take over.
