While the talk about Google's real reasons for buying YouTube continue to circulate, another group has announced their intention to join the online video world:  News Corp and NBC Universal.

According to the LA Times, the two media powerhouses announced a new partnership to create a video website to rival YouTube… with the help of Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL (Time Warner), and MySpace.  The media providers plan to provide online video from their popular television shows, downloadable movies, and user-modifiable video that can shared.  Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and MySpace will supply the eyeballs as distribution partners.

News Corp and NBC say they aren't directly going after YouTube.  But I think they're fudging just a bit.  The media folks think people will get tired of watching user-generated media that makes up the bulk of the video at YouTube.  And I don't know if that part is true or not.  But I do think that the professional content is what drives a lot of YouTube's traffic.

YouTube lets you see some of the most popular videos.  But I bet if you looked at the actual searches being done on the site, you'd find that the majority of them were for TV shows, music videos, and other copyrighted material.

So with the right distribution system, I think this venture could have some potential.  When you combine the audiences that Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and MySpace have - and add in some television shows and movies - that spells a potentially popular service.

Couple those huge audiences with News Corp/NBC-controlled advertising and it only makes sense for these media companies to try to do their own thing.  As the LA Times article points out, some fear that striking deals with Google will only make the search company more powerful within their business sector.  And with more companies joining the fray - like Apple, Joost, etc - control of video-related advertising revenue is only going to become more important.

It should be interesting to see where this all goes.  If some of the other media companies get on board, which is a distinct possibility, YouTube may be in for a battle.  But it all boils down to distribution.  Hollywood has the content.  If they can get it in front of the right audience they'll have a winner.