• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, December 11, 2006 10:32 AM

News Corp., Viacom, CBS Corp. and NBC Universal are discussing the possibility of building their own YouTube competitor. The four media companies' would unite to create a Web site that would be the official destination for video content from their respective TV studio networks. They have also discussed building a Web video player that could play video clips from across the Web. While talks are underway, an actual deal remains a long way off.

Conspicuous by its absence from the talks was Walt Disney, which said it wanted to rely on its own resources to get its content out.

What do traditional media companies need YouTube for? Well, 23 million unique users, for one thing. Web surfers want to be able to go to one comprehensive Web video destination to get content--advertisers want that, too--and right now, that place is YouTube. It will be a tall order for the networks to create a site that's as intuitive and easy to use as YouTube; and since users don't actually want to pay, they'll be bombarded by advertising.

The four media companies have come together before in search of a solution to the rapidly growing YouTube-piracy problem. Viacom, NBC and News Corp. have mulled over the idea of filing a joint lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement. YouTube denies these accusations, saying it takes down illegally uploaded material whenever it's asked.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »