AOL will revamp it’s video portal this week and begin aggregating video clips from around the Internet from a number of video sharing sites. The site will be called AOL Video. AOL hopes to become a television guide for video on the Net. The new portal will initially have 45 video-on-demand channels with both free and paid content from partners like A&E, Nickelodeon, National Lampoon and the WNBA women’s basketball league.
In addition to featured content, AOL’s video search, which incorporates technology from, Truveo, a video search start-up it bought this year, will aggregate videos from YouTube and Google Video.
A beta version of the site is scheduled to launch Friday, with the main launch expected later in August.
This is just one effort in AOL’s attempt to reduce it’s dependence on subscriber income. AOL recently announced that it intends to make more and more of it’s services available to non-subscribers.
Earlier this year, AOL launched, In2TV (previous post here), together with Warner Bros., offering older TV shows for download at no cost.
The broadband Internet video space is moving very quickly with a number of competitors jumping into the fray. Where will we all be watching video on the Internet a year from now? On established video sharing sites like YouTube? Apple’s iTunes? Big portals like Google, AOL, or MSN? New video start-ups?
Tags: AOL, google video, tv, video, video on demand youtube** Download the Best Videos on the Web for your iPod - Free! **