Microsoft , AOL, Fox and NBC are just some of the high-profile companies that have signed up to create the world's largest video distribution network, designed to rival YouTube.
The new venture will establish a vast library of high quality video content, with all the appropriate licences for full-length TV programmes and snippets of top films, including premium content from more than a dozen networks and two leading film studios.
MSN, MySpace, Yahoo! and AOL will be the initial distribution partners for the as-yet-unnamed website. The four networks represent 96 per cent of the unique monthly users of the web in the US and each will have unlimited access to the video database.
The advertising opportunities have already been realised by General Motors, Intel, Esurance, Cisco and Cadbury Schweppes, who are already down as charter advertisers.
News Corporation Peter Chernin believes "this is a game changer for internet video".
"We'll have access to just about the entire US internet audience at launch. And for the first time, consumers will get what they want - professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live," he said.
Full episodes of shows including 24, My Name is Earl and The Simpsons will be on the network from day one. The site is expected to go live this summer.
YouTube, the global phenomenon that allows users to post, view, rate and comment on videos was founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees, before being snapped up by Google just over a year later in a $1.65 billion deal.
