Viacom working on online video initiative

New York (NY) - After a head-turning decision to force YouTube to pull all the submissions that contained its content, Viacom has announced that it is working on a new initiative that it hopes will still offer online exposure of its popular videos.

The new move will have Viacom videos available online, though they will be hosted by Viacom. Like YouTube, the company plans to offer links to videos that can be posted in blogs, message boards, and e-mails, the main outlets that lead to high exposure of YouTube videos.

The initiative, which came after Viacom was not able to set up a deal with YouTube, will give the company more freedom with how users can handle and manipulate the appearance of videos.

The Viacom-owned sites will be at the root of the new plan, with videos planned to be available at MTV.com, Nickelodeon.com, TVLand.com, Comedycentral.com, and other sites of TV channels owned by Viacom.

Viacom was one of the early media companies to embrace online video, welcoming the sharing of TV show clips on YouTube. However, it now wants to branch off and become the source of the videos instead of letting another site grab the viewers for its content.

Viacom, which owns powerhouses like Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon, caters to the main social Internet demographic, and viral videos such as clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were constantly some of the top viewed videos on YouTube.