Media firms create video site

NEW YORK — In Big Media's latest attempt to combat Google Inc.'s YouTube, NBC Universal and News Corp. are banding together with AOL, MSN and Yahoo Inc. to form an ad-supported online video network for full-length TV shows, video clips and movies.

The new venture, which has yet to be named, is expected to launch this summer and would allow people to watch many shows online for free, including "Heroes" from NBC and "24" from Fox, which is owned by News Corp.

As YouTube does, the site would also allow users to upload their own videos and share the site's videos elsewhere, NBC and News Corp. executives told reporters on a conference call. The network would also be open to distributing programs from other media companies, they said.

The venture is clearly aimed at countering the explosive growth of YouTube, which has attracted millions of viewers to its homemade and user-contributed video clips, some of which are taken from copyright-protected TV shows.

The news comes just one week after another major media company, MTV owner Viacom Inc., took its own approach toward battling YouTube, filing a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit claiming that the site encouraged copyright infringement of Viacom's shows such as "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "SpongeBob SquarePants."

YouTube says it's protected by law so long as it takes down any copyright-protected material as soon as it's asked to.

Peter Chernin, the president and chief operating officer of News Corp., said the new venture was aimed at providing viewers with a "legitimate, easy, widespread way" to view programming.

Chernin also said the venture was open to distributing shows from other programmers, as long as they agreed to the copyright protection and economic terms of the venture. He added, however, that it was unlikely that other media companies would become ownership partners in the new venture.

CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network were notably absent from the announcement, but NBC's CEO Jeff Zucker stressed that the new company was "open for business with anyone."

Zucker said the new site would also allow users to buy and download programming, particularly movies, similar to the way that Apple Inc. sells TV shows and movies on its iTunes store. He said prices would likely be comparable to those seen on iTunes and elsewhere.