News Corporation and NBC Universal will be teaming up to provide a free online streaming video service featuring full length movies and TV shows. Unlike Youtube there will be no user uploaded vids to start with, so everything available will be professionally produced and revenues will be generated in the form of advertisements. The article on Australian IT didn't mention the form that these advertisements will take, but I'm really hoping that they will be simple onscreen text adverts like on Youtube, and not scattered throughout the shows like on TV. I am, however, sure to be let down on this, though there is always a chance that the ads will just be shown at the start of each show and thereby able to be skipped. These pros are pretty cunning buggers, so I'm sure that they will figure a way for us to swallow more ads and generate some decent advertising bucks. A small number of high profile advertisers have already signed on to the project, and a number of other production companies like Viacom have also expressed interest in a service that better protects the owners copyright. Looks like we'll just have to wait and see whether this site will become anything decent or not, which really seems to depend on just how greedy the media big wigs wanna be.
With a service like this, I'd be able to hook my laptop directly up to the TV and watch a decent quality show, without having to shell out for a tivo or an Apple TV. There's definite potential here. Stay tuned...
Australian IT March 23rd 2007 - News, NBC plan YouTube rival
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