NBC and News Corp to create 'YouTube killer'

Author: Wil Harris
Published: 23rd March 2007

Will YouTube be kicked into touch?

NBC, News Corporation and other big media companies are combining to create a new video sharing site which will attempt to rival YouTube.

The 'portal', which has no name as of yet, will stream ad-supported TV shows and clips from various television networks and will also allow users to embed video in their own pages. Movie content will also be included in the deal, although the number of people happy to watch The Devil Wears Prada in streaming flash is yet to be ascertained.

AOL, Yahoo and MSN will also run the content on their own pages. However, it seems that viewing of the videos will be restricted to US residents only, and some content may be available to download.

The content giant notably not signed up to the deal is Viacom, which has decided to pursue its own independent web strategy in the fall-out of its lawsuit with YouTube.

Internally, Google and YouTube staff are reportedly calling the new venture 'ClownCo', due to the somewhat hastily prepared press releases, scattered content deals and general confusion that seems to be surrounding the announcement. A conference call to announce the deal yesterday was littered with contradictions and lacked a lot of detail, suggesting that the deal smacks of a kneejerk reaction to YouTube's popularity.

Commentators have suggested that the new company could be a massive failure - with such a wide alliance of partners, who actually all compete with each other, the management of the company could get very sticky indeed.

Do you think the big media companies can pull off a turnaround and embrace the web, wiping out YouTube? Let us know your thoughts over in the forums.