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Comcast Corp. entered the world of lip-synching teens, spewing Coke bottles, and letter-opening rabbits Monday as the company started testing a Web site featuring home videos.
YouTube.com popularized user-created Internet video, but Comcast’s service will offer the tantalizing possibility of a real television audience. Comcast – the nation’s biggest provider of broadband Internet and cable TV – will select some videos to feature on both the Web and on the company’s video-on-demand television service, providing a mix between YouTube and America’s Funniest Home Videos, according to people familiar with the site.
In July Comcast acquired the former Adelphia cable systems in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
“Comcast has the resources and space just lying there waiting to be exploited,” said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. “With YouTube, the best you can expect is to become one of the most popular videos on YouTube, but if you do this with Comcast, you end up on television. For most consumers, that’s very exciting.”
The site, www.Ziddio.com, is expected to generate revenue through ads.
“This is big business just because it’s been proven by YouTube and others that user-generated content generates interest, and interest generates attention and attention generates ads,” Bernoff said.
YouTube boasts about 34 million unique visitors monthly, an audience sizable enough that search engine Google recently agreed to buy the site for $1.65 billion. Some of the most popular videos have featured everyday scenes, such as teens lip-synching to a favorite song, as well as more offbeat fare, such as a fountain created by adding Mentos to Diet Coke bottles. The latter recently won sponsorship from the soda company.
Comcast will organize its site around genres, such as comedy, animation and games.
The company is testing the site this month and is expected to launch it in December.