Fox and NBC Readying Online Video Site

No wonder Fox and NBC are not suing YouTube. They want to attract YouTubers to their upcoming video site.

News Corp. and NBC Universal said today that they were creating an online video site stocked with TV shows and movies, plus clips that users can modify and share with friends.

The two companies enlisted help from some of Google’s biggest Internet rivals. The News Corp.-NBC Universal partnership has deals with Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., Time Warner Inc.’s AOL and News Corp.’s MySpace to place videos in front of their collective audience of hundreds of millions.

They tried to woo Viacom because of its treasure trove of MTV Networks shows that appeal to younger viewers.

But when Viacom headed to court, News Corp. and NBC Universal chose another path. News Corp. President Peter Chernin and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker have made the initiative a top priority, and the talks heated up this week.

Read this part carefully: “stocked with TV shows and movies, plus clips that users can modify and share with friends.” There’s no mention of allowing user uploads of original content. This won’t be YouTube, it’ll be NBCFoxTube. YouTube will remain the repository and destination of choice for original user- and SME- created content. This new NBCFoxTube should at least support video embeds; in the widgetized Web, nobody hangs around information silos.

I must warn Fox and NBC about the danger of decision-making debacles posed by two big offline media giants forming an online alliance. Just look what happened to Inq7, an online alliance between a Philippine TV and print network that eventually fell apart.

Fox and NBC each have the individual resources to build a video site with off-the-shelf online remixing tools; why saddle themselves with each other? Big Media must learn that the key to online success is niche media, not Even Bigger Media.