YouTube brings out media giants' competitive claws - Technology & Media - International Herald Tribune

"Now, a handful of giant media companies, like NBC Universal, News Corp., Viacom and possibly CBS, are close to announcing a new Web site that will feature some of their best-known television programming and other clips in an attempt to build a business for distributing video on the Internet to rival YouTube. The new business could be announced as soon as this week.
Whether or not the new venture goes ahead — and such a collaboration among these companies would be nearly unprecedented — the flurry of activity around its creation underscores the complex and high-stakes dance that media companies are having with new online outlets for their wares, and the potent combination of Google and YouTube in particular.
Executives from the companies have been in intense negotiations over the ownership and management structure of the new entity — which is not yet named — and the talks could continue until the end of the year or fall apart entirely."