NBC Terminates YouTube Channel

Posted on October 24, 2007

Last year, NBC set up a channel on YouTube that featured clips from NBC including Saturday Night Live clips. One of the first videos they uploaded was a clip of Jay Leno pointing out some interesting clips he found on YouTube - that was September, 2006. NBC was blasted when they pulled the funny Lazy Sunday SNL clip from YouTube in February, 2006. Now by pulling the YouTube channel NBC has done it to bloggers once again.

Any YouTube videos from NBC that bloggers had embedded will now display a message declaring the video unavailable. That includes the Jay Leno clips and all the SNL clips. Even the popular Christmas Box video is displaying the no longer available message. This videos can probably still be found on YouTube or another video sharing website but not on a legitimate NBC channel. Valleywag asked whether this sudden move by NBC meant its Hulu.com video site would soon be launched?

NBC got buzz for a revived Saturday Night Live and The Office, and YouTube, through the sheen of legitimacy NBC gave it, got a $1.65 billion buyout. With NBC set to launch its own video site, the laughably named Hulu, the pulling of the YouTube plug was just a matter of time. Speaking of time: Could this move be a sign that Hulu, scheduled for "private beta" testing this month, is finally ready?

It turns out that it was because of Hulu.com and NBC may launch the site as early as next week. There doesn't appear to be a precise launch date scheduled. Will bloggers and webmasters be ready to trust that videos from Hulu.com won't vanish several months after they embed them?

Here is what videos from the deleted NBC channel now look like: