Two big media companies, the News Corporation and NBC Universal, announced this week their joint venture to distribute video clips and entire shows and movies via a new Web site on an advertising-supported basis.
The venture, which does not have yet a name or a management team and is expected to start this summer, is a long-anticipated challenge to YouTube and other video sites. It has been conceived as a response to the popularity of YouTube-Google. The two companies have secured distribution deals with AOL, Yahoo, MSN and MySpace, four of the most popular destinations on the Internet (together they reach 96 percent of the Internet’s audience in the United States). Terms are undisclosed.
Those sites will feature the latest video clips and shows from their TV and film libraries for viewing on a free basis supported by advertising. Visitors to the site will also be able to edit the content and post their own videos. “For the first time, consumers will get professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live,” said the president of the News Corporation.
Viacom, which sued YouTube for $1 billion, accusing it of copyright infringement, hasn’t decided so far to join the venture.
This is one of the boldest efforts yet by conventional media companies to try to maintain control over their content and advertising relationship on the freewheeling Web.
Watch CNN live for free on your home page
See how cool is this new widget created from an Amsterdam start up. It allows you watch live cable TV from a variety of channels such as CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, Al Jazeera, and CNBC.
It is available to embed even at your Google home page. It is featured as Google Gadgets for your webpage. The only problem is that it breaks U.S. copyright laws. So enjoy while it lasts.
MySpace imposes limits to widgets and software tools
MySpace, owned by the News Corporation, is imposing growing limits on the software tools, like music, video players and other widgets, that users can embed in their page, to ensure that his parent company can commercially capitalize on its 90 million visitors each month.
Many formerly enthusiastic MySpace users say that the new restrictions hamper their abilities to design their pages and promote new projects.
”Why shouldn’t they call it FoxSpace or RupertSpace? (…) We find it incredibly ironic and frustrating that a company that has built its assets on the back of its users, is turning around and telling people they can’t do anything that violates terms of service,” says the CEO of Indie911.
In the past, MySpace executives have said that the service failed to block companies like YouTube that began successful businesses from MySpace’s pages. “YouTube wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for MySpace. We’ve created companies on our back, ” said Fox Interactive Media.
MySpace and Fox are finding ways to exploit the growing widget economy. Fox Interactive Media introduced last year a service called Spring Widget. The service provides tools to help developers create widgets for use both on computer desktops and online networks like MySpace.
In a recent use of its technology, the studio behind the horror film “Dead Silence” used a Spring Widget tool on its promotional MySpace page to count down the minutes until the film’s release.
Apple TV, an iPod for your TV
Internet downloads are the future, and Apple has found a way to play them on the TV. Its solution is a box that can connect computers and TVs without wires called Apple TV, which finally went on sale last week for $300.
However, there are plenty of companies performing similar PC-to-TV bridging function, like Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ($400), and Netgear’s EVA8000 ($350). They both can stream photos, music and videos.
Apple TV, one-inch tall, 7.7 inches on a side, doesn’t work with traditional TV and requires a widescreen TV, preferably an HDTV (but it does not play HD video). It has only 40-gigabyte hard drive; so it holds about 50 hours of video. It doesn’t come with any cables.
Basically it’s an iPod for your TV. It copies the iTunes library (music, podcasts, TV shows, movies) from one Mac or PC on your wired or wireless home network to its hard drive.
Apple TV cannot record television shows like a TiVo. Menus and photos appear in spectacular high-definition, but not TV shows and movies, since all iTunes videos are in standard definition. Definitely, their approach is very limiting.
