The Walt Disney Company has signed a deal that will provide some of its content to Google's YouTube Web site, but the jury is still out on whether the entertainment juggernaut will come to terms with online
video service Hulu as well. The YouTube arrangement includes sports highlights, clips of television shows and other short-form content. YouTube Webcasts will not include full-length Disney programming.
Under the terms, Disney retains the option to sell its own advertising inventory. According to BusinessWeek, Disney is also negotiating to put videos on Hulu in exchange for an equity stake in the joint venture. Hulu has seen a surge in interest in the last month -- in February, Hulu had the biggest surge in unique viewers of any online video site in that period, according to researcher comScore. However, the site has not been able to attract much advertising.
Hulu is just one of a number of high-profile online destinations -- such as Facebook and Twitter -- that have no clear profit model. But pressure seems to be mounting for the sites to indicate they are at least investigating how they might bring in revenue. For example, last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has hired a product manager to develop accounts for businesses that would cost a fee to use, but would include more features. So far there's been no word on what those features might be or when a fee might be established.
YouTube started life as an online repository of amateur videos but has grown to include professional video content from CBS, the Food Network and the Discovery Channel, among others. With roughly 100 million unique viewers in February, YouTube is the most popular online video service in the United States, according to data from comScore.
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