Ah, poor Google. First Viacom files suit against YouTube, alleging a billion dollars worth of copyright infringement. Now two more massive media conglomerates are joining up to open a second battle front, this time in the market instead of the courts. NBC and News Corp. issued a joint press release this morning, saying they were planning on creating a new online video-distribution network, which they say will debut this summer with "thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips."
The new entity -- a company yet to be formed -- will distribute its content on AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo, the new partners say. They were quick to claim that those sites' users represent 96% of monthly U.S. Internet visitors (take that, YouTube!). Each partner will be able to display video in a customized embedded player.
Just how much of a threat could this new entity pose to YouTube? News Corp.'s press release quoted Comscore data showing that the audience for Internet video was 123 million unique people in January 2007. So I checked Comscore to see how YouTube stacks up against Yahoo Video and MySpace. In January, YouTube had 34.4 million unique viewers. Yahoo Video had 19.8 million and MySpace Videos had 10.8 million. In other words, YouTube alone reaches more video viewers than Yahoo and MySpace combined.
My take: News Corp. and NBC are going to have a tough time posing a credible challenge. They've got to build a new site, develop an easily brandable embedded video player (one which accomodates the copy protection and advertising requirements of every distributor, by the way), fill it with content, and launch it -- all within a few months. Does anyone think that a rushed, top-down, corporate-driven project like this will pose a serious threat to YouTube?
UPDATE 12:30pm Pacific time: A phone press conference with Jeff Zucker, President & CEO of NBC Universal, and Peter Chernin, President and COO of News Corp., provides some additional information. Video will be copy protected, no question about that: "IP protection … is critically important to both companies," Chernin says.
However, users will be able to share video and even mash up videos, Chernin says. When I post videos (mashed up or not) on my own site, they'll appear with the new company's player, and with advertising from the joint ad network.
The new joint venture, which has yet to be given a name, aims to distribute its video content as widely as possible, subject to copy protections. In fact, Chernin says they had discussions with Google CEO Eric Schmidt this morning about the possibility of syndicating video content to YouTube.
"This is obviously not a YouTube killer. We believe in the power and benefit of ubiquitous distribution, and we're willing to talk with anybody provided they meet our economic terms and our copyright protection needs," said Chernin.
Will NBC content that's currently on YouTube -- such as Saturday Night Live skits -- continue to be available on YouTube? "We've had discussions with them [Google] about removing pirated content, and we will continue those discussions," NBC's Zucker said.
Most of the content on the site will be free, the partners say, including television shows, short-form content, user-generated content, and more. Some content, such as full-length movies, will be available for a fee.
Chernin: "This will be the largest advertising platform on earth."
