• The Hollywood Reporter via Reuters, Thursday, November 16, 2006 12:30 PM

Viacom on Wednesday announced that its Comedy Central network is refining its broadband strategy, in light of the uncertainty over the presence of its material on video sites like YouTube.

Motherload, Comedy Central's Web site, is now adding a video player that allows users to grab and embed their favorite clips from its shows on their own Web pages. The new video player is part of a broader effort to make over the channel's Web site. The player uses Macromedia Flash, the same format as YouTube, and the clips will be ad-supported. This, by the way, could become a trend for media companies wanting to circumvent the problem of online video copyright infringement: Let users control where your clips end up, as long as you can sell an ad on it.

At present, Viacom's policy with respect to YouTube is unclear. A month ago, the media giant asked YouTube to remove all its Comedy Central clips from the site; later, it mysteriously relented. Sources say a deal between YouTube and Viacom is imminent.

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