It's only been a few months, but the gigantic acquisition of YouTube, Inc. by Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is already having a ripple effect among the traditional media titans. And it's also looking like none of them feels it can go it alone. Today, the Wall Street Journal reports [subscription required] that four media juggernauts -- News Corporation (NYSE:NWS), Fox, Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) and NBC Universal, the joint venture between General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Vivendi -- are in talks to work together and create a rival website.The companies want to create a jointly-owned web portal that would serve as the primary source for material migrated from the TV networks. It would start an in-house revenue stream of web-based advertising, which will mean a lot more cash, even if it is divided by four. The new business wing would create an entity that would be legally harmed by YouTube's use of copyrighted material. This means a new fulcrum for more content-based lawsuits.
Here's a question, though: Where's The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) in all this?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-13-2006 @ 8:13AM
Jason said...
I look forward to seeing this one happen. Not sure how they think they can pull it off, considering the huge infrastructure required in order to run video services on the web.
Thanks.
Jason