Fox, NBC, target YouTube with launch of video-sharing site
Last Updated: Monday, October 29, 2007 | 11:16 AM ET
CBC News
Related
Internal Links
Media giants Fox and NBC Universal launched an advertising-supported online video site on Monday, a move that will pit the entertainment companies in a battle for viewers with Google Inc.-owned YouTube.
A beta or test version of Hulu launched on Monday, with a final version of the video sharing site open to the public expected in a few months, the companies said.
The site will draw programming from News Corp.-owned Fox and from NBC, which is owned by General Electric, including hit television shows such as 24, The Simpsons and The Office.
The site will follow an ad-funded business model, serving up commercial notices to site visitors viewing and sharing the videos for free. The service will also begin with 10 feature-length films, with commercial breaks inserted throughout the movies.
Fox and NBC already make some of their programming available for free on their own websites, but Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar said the new site will provide greater reach for advertisers.
"Consumers identify with shows and films," rather than networks, said Kilar. "When you aggregate great content together, it makes things easier for the user."
The site will also host programming from outside companies, such as Sony Corp. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
Hulu also has distribution partnerships with websites such as Yahoo, MSN, AOL and News Corp.-owned MySpace, all of which will be able to stream video from the site through a player embedded in a web page.
It will also provide visitors with tools that allow them to embed full episodes on their own blogs, websites or social networking profile pages.
The companies hope that by launching their own service, they will gain greater control over content they own.
The issue of control over content has been a thorny one for popular online video site YouTube.
Viacom Inc., which owns Comedy Central, MTV and VH1, launched a $1-billion US lawsuit against Google for failing to keep shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report from being uploaded to YouTube.
With files from the Associated PressShare Tools
Top News Headlines
- Everest victim's family asks for government help
- The family of a Toronto woman who died in pursuit of her lifelong dream to climb Mount Everest is asking the Canadian government for help in bringing her body back to Canada. more »
- Employment Insurance review boards to be scrapped
- The federal government is scrapping two review boards used by people appealing decisions made about their employment insurance. more »
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Raw stories about bullying emerged when a video booth was set up inside a Quebec high school. more »
- Canada ending 'Buffalo shuffle' for visas, closing consulate
- The federal government is shutting the Canadian consulate in Buffalo less than two years after costly renovations, while dropping a requirement for visas to be renewed outside the country, CBC News has learned. more »
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- SpaceX capsule docked at International Space Station
- The privately bankrolled unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule has been securely bolted to the Harmony module of the International Space Station. . more »
- Bonavista, N.L., 'coyote' was really wolf, tests confirm
- Wolves have not been seen in Newfoundland since around 1930 and were believed to have been hunted to extinction on the island, but genetic tests have confirmed that an 82-pound animal shot on the Bonavista Peninsula in March was, in fact, a wolf. more »
- Once-rare argus butterfly thriving thanks to climate change
- Global warming is threatening the existence of many species, such as the giant polar bear, but in the case of Britain's brown argus butterfly, it took a species in trouble and made it thrive. more »
- How curry spice helps the immune system kill bacteria
- A spice used in curry dishes helps to prevent infection and now scientists think they've got a lead on how. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Government to shut down unique fresh water research area May. 25, 2012 12:31 PM The Experimental Lakes Area research facility in Northern Ontario is being closed down after 44 years of providing invaluable data to scientists in Canada and internationally, a decision that has stunned researchers and environmental groups.
Quirks & Quarks
- May 26: Before the Lights Go Out May. 24, 2012 10:14 AM A new book, "Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us", suggests that the unpredictable, unplanned, ad-hoc way our energy use developed in the past will shape our energy future.
Latest Features
- Victim's husband to be charged in Aylmer triple stabbing
- Reclaiming the dead on Mt. Everest
- Everest victim's family asks for government help
- Employment Insurance review boards to be scrapped
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Conservatives move again to have robocalls suits tossed
- Workers' EI history to affect claim under new rules
- Canada ending 'Buffalo shuffle' for visas, closing consulate
- SpaceX capsule docked at International Space Station
