• Financial Times, Tuesday, October 23, 2007 10:45 AM

In anticipation of next week's launch of Hulu, the joint online media venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal, NBC on Monday removed content from Google's YouTube, including licensed video clips and a promotional channel that were part of a deal signed by the companies almost nine months ago.

A company spokesperson confirmed that NBC was removing its content from YouTube, but said the decision was intended to provide a boost to Hulu, not to spite Google or YouTube. YouTube, meanwhile, isn't taking the decision personally.

NBC was one of the few media companies to agree to a distribution partnership with YouTube. The decision can also be seen as a failure of YouTube's promotional channel strategy, which has attracted little attention since its unveiling more than six months ago. Since then, media companies' ire over Google's lax attitude about copyright violation has grown (Viacom is still suing the search giant for $1 billion in damages), which is seen as a major reason why NBC and News Corp. announced a rival video service of their own.

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