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Yahoo Recasts Online Video: JUMPS ON TREND POPULARIZED BY YOUTUBE

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Elise Ackerman, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Jun. 1--Yahoo launched a revamped video service Wednesday evening that appears to position the Sunnyvale company for a future in Internet television.

The new service, at http://video.yahoo.com, encourages people using Yahoo to upload videos and create personalized "studios" where video producers can manage their content and communicate with fans. It also allows people to subscribe to video "channels" that are continuously updated with new content.

The set-up provides a glimpse into a future where traditional television programming mixed with amateur online content can be viewed on your computer, home-entertainment center or mobile phone.

In addition to funny home videos uploaded by amateurs, the new service will feature news "channels" from ABC News and CBS's "60 Minutes", as well as videos from the Discovery Channel and CNN.

This spring, Yahoo released a test version of a product it calls Go TV, which lets people view Yahoo videos on any PC-connected television screen. The product also lets users tune in to their favorite TV channels, and it can act as a personal video recorder.

The changes by the Internet powerhouse point to how businesses may eventually profit from the exploding popularity of online video.

In March alone, people watched 3.7 billion online videos, according to comScore Networks, a research firm. And the leading online video Web site, YouTube, of San Mateo, says its visitors watch 50 million videos and upload 50,000 videos each day.

Yahoo's users will be able to comment and link to videos -- a phenomenon that made YouTube popular.

Not quite 6 months old, YouTube has been considering different business models, including selling advertising as a member of both Google and Yahoo's online networks, and cross-promotional arrangements with movie studios and other entertainment companies.

Meanwhile, videos hosted by YouTube and other sites such as Grouper, Revver, StupidVideos and iFilm can be found by using Yahoo's video search, which is one of the most comprehensive on the Web.

Jason Zajac, vice president and general manager of Yahoo's social media, said the company decided to host videos in order to enhance its users' experience and create more advertising opportunities.

"It will potentially give them an advantage over competitors," said Joshua Martin, an analyst at IDC.

Yahoo has sold video ads on its Web properties for more than four years, including, for example, a recent tooth whitening ad before a video by singer Pink.

Zajac said the service will likely provide additional opportunities for such "pre-roll" ads. "It's just up to us when we start inserting those ads," he said.

In contrast, rivals such as Microsoft and Google are just moving into video advertising.

Microsoft recently began rolling out new advertising platforms that will allow video ad sales.

Google began selling video advertisements last week. Its video ads will be placed on Web sites affiliated with the search engine's large third-party advertising network.

In addition, Google also is building a giant video archive mostly made up of videos submitted by its users. So far, however, Google has not tried to embed advertising into the video collection -- though some Google videos are available to rent or buy.

In addition to uploading videos to Yahoo, people will be able to stream videos from their Web sites or blogs by embedding software code for Yahoo's video player.

Contact Elise Ackerman at eackerman@mercurynews. com or (408) 271-3774.

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Copyright (c) 2006, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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NASDAQ-NMS:YHOO, NASDAQ-NMS:GOOG, NASDAQ-NMS:MSFT,

Source: San Jose Mercury News

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