Earlier this week, I saw that the process for launching the Fox/NBC-Universal online video site continues to move forward, as NBC starts to wind down its own exclusive video service that it offered to syndicate sites (National Broadband Co., or NBBC), in preparation for folding those operations into the project, which is apparently being called simply "New Site" for now.
Back last September, I first wrote about NBC's plans to stream entire episodes of shows for free on its own site, bolstered by advertising. I wrote, "The plan is for new fall prime-time shows to be made available through the NBC Universal Video Player, a revamped product that will make its relaunch on Oct. 1."
The decision to scale back the NBCU-specific video offering and start switching over to the new venture is the latest move toward the collaborative video platform effort. I last wrote about this in May, when NBCU and News Corp. were working toward a summer launch by securing advertisers and discussing names. For now, the "new site" moniker stands.
NBCU has made a variety of interesting moves in regard to online video content recently. Back in May, they announced that they would eliminate running longer advertising before shorter clips. I wrote:
NBCU is leaving money on the table, not accepting 30-second spots for their short-form videos that advertisers want to put out there, because they feel that there might be more profit to be gained in creating a business model that angers customers the least. In short-term, that doesn't make a lot of sense. However, in creating a sustainable busienss model, it makes quite a bit more. In other words, a short-term loss is NBC's way of hoping for long-term gain.
At the same time, NBC is also interested in building more explicit social networks around its content, so it will be interesting to see how that projects springs up alongside the continuing development of the joint venture between NBCU and News Corp. See more on the social networking site Rhiza Sanchez's post at 9:01 a.m.
