NBC Universal and News Corp. Announce Deal
Charter Advertisers, Including Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors, Will Now Reach 96% of U.S. Internet Audience Through This Groundbreaking Venture
Context & Ripple Effects
NBC Universal and News Corp have confirmed a joint online video venture, and the same-day coverage map tells you how the industry read it: Bloomberg frames it as a 'YouTube rival to reclaim shows,' CNNMoney and the Los Angeles Times lead with the challenge to YouTube, TechCrunch confirms a company launched 'to counter perceived Google/YouTube threat,' and Valleywag sums up the mood as 'Google's enemies assemble.' This is a coalition play built on withheld premium television rights, not on new technology.
What makes the venture more than a press release is its commercial spine: charter advertisers Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors signed on at announcement, backing a claimed reach of 96% of the U.S. internet audience. Pre-sold inventory across both companies' combined footprint gives a challenger revenue guarantees before a single video ships.
First-order effects
- The five charter advertisers gain a single ad buy spanning NBCU and News Corp properties with claimed 96% U.S. internet reach — an immediate brand-safe alternative to YouTube for premium video placement.
- NBCU and News Corp take direct control of how their television programming circulates online, moving marquee shows out of unauthorized aggregation and into their own storefront.
Second-order effects
- Other network and studio rights holders now face a choice: join the advertiser-backed coalition or watch their catalogs lose the premium distribution and pricing channel it creates.
- Google's YouTube meets a competitor whose edge is exclusive licensed content, shifting the video-platform contest from traffic scale toward rights ownership and direct ad sales.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, online video consolidates around owner-operated consortia of rights holders who sell their own audiences, contesting the open-aggregator model that platforms like Google built.
- Charter commitments from Intel, General Motors and peers signal that large brand budgets will follow content rights rather than raw traffic, hardening premium video into a distinct ad market.
The trend: Legacy media owners are answering platform intermediaries by pooling content rights and ad sales into joint ventures, turning premium online video into a contest between rights holders and aggregators.