The word is out that major broadcast players are looking at a new venture to challenge YouTube, which has turned web video into a mainstream distribution medium virtually overnight.

There's a post from the TechCrunch blog that talks about a possible announcement:

There have been rumors of a TV network led joint venture to compete with YouTube for months -- the first time we heard it was just a couple of days after the first rumor of Google’s acquisition of the company. Since then, we’ve heard that discussions stalled as one partner or another pulled out of the group.

The rumors are now back with a vengeance. The L.A. Times is now reporting that a deal may be announced soon, and this was confirmed to us directly as well by a source close to the deal. An announcement could come as early as Thursday.

It seems clear that News Corp. and NBC are involved, with Viacom and Sony as possible players as well. This won’t be a direct YouTube competitor in that the focus will be on distribution of content to third party sites: deals may already be in place with Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and News Corp.’s MySpace. There may or may not be a dedicated website for this content as well.

Just what does this mean for communicators? It suggests strongly that web video is a medium that is here to stay. The eyeballs are present, otherwise such a venture would never be happening.

We need to think about how to play in this arena.

Video can be a powerful way for companies and other organizations to talk about themselves, what they're doing -- and even respond to stories that are already out there. Joint ventures such as this one will drive even more people to consume video on the web. So, now we all need to climb into our director's chairs and start thinking about the best use of video for our clients and organizations.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Technorati Tags: youtube, video, news corp, nbc, viacom, sony