NBC, News Corp. plan video sharing site
UPDATE: Service with full TV shows, movies set to launch in summer
By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 3/22/2007
MARCH 22 | NBC Universal and News Corp. will launch a video sharing site this summer that will offer full-length TV shows, movies and clips from a dozen networks and two film studios.
The yet-to-be-named venture is likely to pose a serious challenge to market leader YouTube, which has vexed studios over postings of unauthorized clips and led Viacom to sue earlier this month.
Content on NBC/News Corp.’s new site will include advertisements and include free and paid programming for viewers through distribution partners AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo!, putting it in reach of 96% of Internet users, the companies said.
Full-length episodes from current shows available at launch will include NBC shows Heroes, My Name is Earl and Saturday Night Live and Fox shows The Simpsons, 24 and House. Episodes from older TV shows from both Fox and NBC catalogs also will be available.
The site will launch with Fox movies Borat, Little Miss Sunshine and The Devil Wears Prada and NBC Universal’s Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy.
During an afternoon conference call discussing the deal, execs said movies would be offered for sale on the site with some older catalog titles available for free. NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker said NBC/Universal TV content sold on iTunes would also be available for sale only on the site.
“This is a game changer for Internet video,” News Corp. president and chief operating officer Peter Chernin said in a statement announcing the deal. “We’ll have access to just about the entire U.S. Internet audience at launch. And for the first time, consumers will get what they want -- professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live.”
Added NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker: “This venture supercharges our distribution of protected, quality content to fans everywhere. Consumers get a hugely attractive aggregation of a wide range of content, and marketers get a novel way to connect with a large and highly engaged audience.”
Both companies had hinted at launching a site earlier this year. Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors have signed on as charter advertisers.
NBC and News Corp. will seek to add additional distribution partners, who will receive a cut of advertising revenues. Distribution partners will embed the programs in their site with a player for viewing.
AOL plans to incorporate the videos throughout its site so a user reading a news story on Keifer Sutherland, for example, could click on and view the latest episode of 24, the company said.
The new venture will be located in New York and Los Angeles. NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff will head the transitional management team until a permanent staff is announced.
NBC and News Corp. are launching the service when the movie downloading market is still small, but video sharing of short-form content has taken off in large part due to YouTube. In January, there were 123 million unique video streams and downloads, according to comScore Video Metrix.
