Tired of kowtowing to start-up Internet video companies, News Corp. and NBC said that they were starting their own YouTube clone and media player. But apparently News Corp./NBC said their videos will appear on sites like AOL, MySpace, Yahoo, and maybe even YouTube.
The new partnership is keen to point out that they are protecting copyrights, unlike say, YouTube. So apparently, the site won’t host movies or TV shows, or at least it will have News Corp and NBC content. Whoopie!
But do we really need another online video destination? It’s notable only because this is being created by a TV network and a movie studio. If this will have just user-generated content or just NBC or Fox content will it really get viewers to come? Viacom may be next to try their hand at a YouTube clone since they’ve now sued YouTube for $1 billion.
Doesn’t this remind you of the pre-boom dot com days? Those idyllic days when big Hollywood producers and directors decided to get into Internet video. Now YouTube is enticing Holllywood back to the Internet. For example:
Steven Spielberg is working with Survivor-creator Mark Burnett on a website called Onthelot.com, which lets aspiring filmmakers submit videos for a chance to win a $1 million development deal. The best shows make it to a TV show on Fox, where viewers will vote and choose a winner.
Burnett is also teaming up with MTV to create a site where users create parodies of movies. The best videos will be shown during the MTV Video awards next year.
Michael Eisner is getting into Internet content as well with a production company that is producing short online serials (about 90 seconds long). Eisner hopes to generate ad revenue from in-stream ads appearing before and after the shows, as well as product placement.
And finally, TV writer Steven Bochco is teaming up with MetaCafe to launch a series of confessional short videos. The project, called “Cafe Confidential” will include videos that are unscripted and feature just ordinary people not actors. Video producers that attract the largest audience can get some payment, although there was no word on how much. From the Time article:
Bochco says he views the Web as a medium best suited for snippets of entertainment that can be consumed between tasks, something he calls a “mental shower.” “I think people go to the Internet, particularly younger people, assuming they’re not going for information, for a distraction between tasks,” Bochco said.
Remember a few years ago when Hollywood big wigs like Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen backed Pop.com? The site which eventually closed before it even launched. A victim of a bloated (over $50 million) budget and the beginning of the dot-com crash.
I wonder, will Hollywood really understand Internet video?
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