News Corp., NBC pull together to challenge YouTube

News Corp. and NBC Universal plan to announce as soon as today that they are creating an online video site stocked with TV shows and movies, plus clips that users can modify and share with friends.

The two companies enlisted help from some of Google's biggest Internet rivals. The News Corp.-NBC Universal partnership has deals with Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., Time Warner Inc.'s AOL and News Corp.'s MySpace to place videos in front of their collective audience of hundreds of millions.

The new venture could launch this summer.

In addition to Fox and NBCU, Sony has also joined the discussion. There may be a fourth content player (not Time Warner, may be CBS Corp). The project will be capitalized to about $100 million, with each player pitching in with $25 million.

Google continues to alienate big media, letting it slip that its internal nickname for the joint venture is “Clown Co.”