NBC to launch YouTube Challenger

To offer clips and episodes including 24, Heroes, Simpsons and more

22 March 2007 16:32 GMT / By Stuart Miles

NBC in America has announced that it is to launch a video sharing website to go up against Google's YouTube.

The American TV network is not going it only however and teamed up with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, AOL, MSN, MySpace And Yahoo.

Announced today by Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal and Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation, the companies have said that the video-rich site will debut this summer with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips.

AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo will be the new site’s initial distribution partners with users having unlimited access to the site’s vast library of content.

“This is a game changer for Internet video”, said Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation. “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.”

At launch, full episodes and clips from current hit shows from Fox including Heroes, 24, House, My Name Is Earl, Saturday Night Live, Friday Night Lights, The Riches, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, The Tonight Show, Prison Break, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader and Top Chef, plus hits from the studios’ vast television libraries, will be available free, on an ad-supported basis.

The companies have also promised films like Borat, Little Miss Sunshine, Devil Wears Prada, The Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy with bonus materials and movie trailers.

News Corp is hoping to use its MySpace website to bolster views and engagement: “By delivering the new site’s content to our more than 65 million users, we can build on MySpace’s position as a leading destination for online video, and enable content creators to tap into the power of social networking”, said Peter Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media.

Each distribution partner will feature the site’s content in an embedded player customised with a look and feel consistent with each site, making the offering organic to each destination. The new company will offer innovative advertising sales propositions by being able to sell cross-platform - on-air and on-line. Post-launch, sites affiliated with founding companies, including iVillage and IGN, will also have the opportunity to become distribution partners.