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News Corp, NBC Universal take on YouTube
2007-03-22
Media titans NBC Universal and News Corp. announced plans Thursday to join forces in creating an online video website aimed at competing with the wildly popular YouTube owned by Google. The two companies said they were planning a mid-year launch of "the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled." The new site would include "the most sought-after content from television and film," according to a joint statement from News Corp. and NBC Universal, which is a unit of General Electric. The statement said the "video-rich site" would feature "thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips, representing premium content from at least a dozen networks and two major film studios." At launch, the new website will show full episodes and clips from current hit shows, including "Heroes" and "24." These will be available free, on an ad-supported basis. It will also show films like "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Devil Wears Prada," and "The Bourne Identity." The new site has agreements with Time Warner's AOL, Microsoft's MSN, News Corp's MySpace and Yahoo, which will be the new site's initial distribution partners and who capture an audience representing 96 percent of US Internet users. Advertisers will include Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors. The new company will be located in New York and Los Angeles and initially headed by a transitional management team led by NBC Universal's chief digital officer, George Kliavkoff. "This is a game changer for Internet video," said Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp. "We'll have access to just about the entire US 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. "We're excited about the potential for this alliance and we're looking forward to working with any content provider or distributor who wants to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity." Jeff Zucker, president and chief executive of NBC Universal, said the new venture "supercharges our distribution of protected, quality content to fans everywhere."
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