TV networks challenge YouTube

YouTube's numero uno position as the biggest video sharing website is under threat as News Corporation and NBC Universal joined hands to proclaim the world's largest Internet video distribution network.

Distributing full-length movies, television shows and video clips is on the agenda of these media giants. This effectively means that popular television shows such as The Simpsons, 24, Heroes, Saturday Night Live, and House will be available online for free.

The media companies intend to use AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo! as distribution partners. Put together, the four account for 96 per cent of internet users in the US.

Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corporation, claimed that the development would raise internet video to a whole new level. He said, “We will have access to just about the entire US internet audience at launch. For the first time, consumers will get what they want - professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live."

YouTube, founded in February 2005 is a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. Since early 2007 is has regularly received over 8 million hits a day.

YouTube utilizes Adobe Flash technology to display video clippings. Such is the popularity of this service that the company was named Time magazine's "Invention of the Year" for 2006.

Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in October. This prompted the site's co-founders, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, to post a video that proclaimed "the king of video and the king of search" had gotten together.

Whether the current association of News Corporation and NBC Universal is big enough to topple Google's YouTube remains to be seen.

YouTube has a huge head start in attracting video viewers. Moreover, some legal experts claim that the new venture may hit a roadblock a sit could get dinged by antitrust regulators. Annette Hurst, a San Francisco attorney said, "Whenever competitors join together in a business, rather than competing with one other, it could be seen as dividing up the market."