• Reuters, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 3:19 PM

Reuters is reporting that Baidu, China's premier search engine, has tapped Providence Equity Partners to launch an online video channel in China. Stateside, U.S.-based Providence is best known as an investor in Hulu, the premium video hub jointly owned by NBC Universal, News Corp, and Disney. The new channel is expected to show licensed content, and is set to debut in the first quarter.

It marks Baidu's latest foray into China's nascent online video market. Providence and Baidu are now expected to create a fund to buy licensed content to show on the channel. China's Youku, which operates a video-sharing service similar to Google's YouTube, just told Reuters it expects to record a profit within three years.

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