Google Video Hosts UPN's 'Everybody Hates Chris,' Sans Ads

In what appears to be a major step toward becoming a portal company, Google Monday began offering Web users the premiere of the UPN comedy show "Everybody Hates Chris" on its video search engine.

The episode, which will be available through Thursday, is being streamed without ads--either during or before the video. Google also is not monetizing the streams with sponsored search ads.

The show is fully searchable through transcripts and metadata provided by UPN. When users search for particular lines in the program, Google offers 10-second "video snippets" showing just the searched-for dialogue.

"With Google Video, our mission is to make the world's video content accessible and useful. The show debuted last week; now we're making this accessible to users," said Peter Chane, a senior business product manager with Google.

Chane indicated that other deals for television content might be in the works. "We're not announcing anything at this time, but we are working with rights holders to bring more and more video online," he said.

MSN, Yahoo!, and America Online all have struck similar deals with content providers, although those deals were monetized through ads in some capacity. Yahoo! recently agreed to stream the pilot episode of "Supernatural," a show that premiered two weeks ago on The WB. MSN last month streamed the first episode of "Barbershop: The Series" simultaneously with its Aug. 14 premiere on Showtime. Also this month, AOL made Fox's "Reunion" available online.

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