Murdoch to take on YouTube

Much covered online today, News Corp and NBC are going to be launching an as yet unnamed video website to take on the dominance of YouTube, given that the recently Google-acquired site is acting as a repository (unofficially) for TV series and films online.

The New York Times reports that the new website will be used to distribute programming such as 24 - which will mean that Virgin Media and Freeview customers will be able to legally see it despite Rupert Murdoch's own Sky TV pulling it along with its other channels recently.

The free content will be supported by advertising and is clearly a direct challenge to YouTube - with a reported 96% of Internet users in the USA to be reached by it, as it will be supplied across a number of leading websites such as MSN and Yahoo.

NBC are denying that this is their response to YouTube and Google:

Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, said that the distribution deals with the major Web destinations underscored that the new venture is not merely a defensive move against YouTube and Google, as some early reports had characterized it.

"I totally disagree with that," Mr. Zucker said in an interview. "What this is doing is taking advantage of the huge marketplace, both on the advertising side and consumer side, for this kind of material."

Don't underestimate Google - what will their response be? The size of the content assets of the new venture though is forbidding:

"Both of the founding companies have vast video assets. In addition to owning the NBC TV network, NBC Universal’s businesses include the cable channels USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel and Bravo. The News Corporation owns the Fox Television Network and MySpace."