Media giants tie up with Google''s YouTube rivals for online video distribution

24 March 2007

Mumbai: Broadcasting giants News Corp and NBC Universal will partner YouTube rivals AOL, MSN and Yahoo! to distribute video content for a new online joint venture in a bid to give some serious competition to Google's YouTube.

The media giants said they would launch a free online service, featuring full length movies and clips from at least a dozen television networks this summer.
YouTube has clips less than five minutes in length.

The plan is to pool videos from NBC Universal and News Corp and then distribute them for viewing on AOL, MSN and Yahoo.

Analysts expect the new partnership's plan to introduce full length feature films that could be viewed for free to bring about a major change in the nascent video market.

Google's response to the new challenge posed to it is still awaited.

News Corp chief operating officer Peter Chernin and Jeff Zucker, NBC Univeral's CEO, said they had spoken with Google CEO Eric Schmidt about joining the new offering.