PC World: NBC, News Corp. Team Up for YouTube Rival

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130074-pg,1/article.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130074-pg,1/article.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"News Corp. and NBC Universal will challenge Google Inc.'s YouTube for online eyeballs and advertising dollars by launching a video-streaming Web site by the third quarter, News Corp. announced Thursday. Through a promotion deal with AOL LLC, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, MySpace and Yahoo Inc., the new site will reach 65 million viewers, accounting for 96 percent of U.S. unique online users on a monthly basis, the company said. To keep those viewers, NBC and News Corp. will offer free viewing of TV episodes by supporting the business with advertising by Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Cisco Systems Inc., Esurance Inc., Intel Corp. and General Motors Corp. The partners will also try to create an interactive Web community by inviting users to create personalized video playlists, mashups, online communities and a video-search function.</i>"<br /><br />Will this work, or are they a couple of years too late? It's tough to say - the array of partners they have lined up is impressive - so they'll ready a lot of eyeballs - but does a corporate giant like NBC Universal really grasp what people are looking for today with online video? Here's a hint: it's not just the same warmed-over content they get on their TV set.

[Felix Torres]

Will this work, or are they a couple of years too late?

Actually, if they find the right partner(s) *off* the PC, this could be enormous. Especially if what they offer *is* the "same warmed over stuff" you get on cable.
Try this on for size; PS3 has no answer to the 360 IPTV effort.
PS3 has a built-in browser (puny though it may be).
If Sony cooked up a deal to provide a full-screen front-end to these videos, they would allow you to watch any TV show at full digital quality (no crappy hybrid/analog or over-compressed MPEG1) when *you* want it.
Want to queue up episodes 5,6,7 and 8 of Heroes? Build up a playlist and sit back. Who cares it is saturday afternoon.
No DVR necessary, no big HD needed, no nothing.
You just stream it to your STB.
Could be PS3, could be 360, could be Wii.
Could be Apple TV version 3.5 but that's a ways off.

There's a business model in there.
Somebody will figure it out sooner or later.