Google, which said it would not tolerate any file sharing violations when it acquired for $1.65bn last October, has been warned by Viacom to immediately remove the postings, which are understood to total 1.2bn video streams that have been illegally taken from Viacom-owned channels, which include MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
According to Viacom, Google has failed to honour its commitment to clamping down on unauthorised video posting on YouTube, and for not offering "fair compensation" for people who own the intellectual property rights to work posted on the site.
Viacom has also accused YouTube of being "unwilling" to reach an agreement about the posting of music videos and clips from Viacom-owned shows.
The news follows News Corporation's film division 20th Century Fox issuing a subpoena to YouTube last month, which demanded that forthcoming episodes of CIA drama series '24' be removed from the website.
A spokesperson for Viacom said: "Filtering tools promised repeatedly by YouTube and Google have not been put in place, and they continue to host and stream vast amounts of unauthorised video.
"YouTube and Google retain all of the revenue generated from this practice without extending fair compensation to the people who have expended all of the effort and cost to create it."
Google's recent decision to start linking more of its YouTube searches to clips on , which hosts more banner advertising, is believed to be one of Viacom's main objections to the posting of clips from its broadcast output.
Viacom claims months of negotiations with Google and YouTube have failed to reach an outcome, but it is unclear what action the media company is likely to take next.
A statement from Viacom said: "After months of ongoing discussions with YouTube and Google, it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users.
"Our hope is that YouTube and Google will support a fair and authorised distribution model that allows consumers to continue to enjoy our very popular content now and in the future."
Google and YouTube have not publicly responded to Viacom's comments.
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