YouTube alternative to be launched today

When Veoh launches today, the Internet television service will harness the same file-sharing technology long associated with the illicit digital downloads its creator once fought.

San Diego-based Veoh Networks is the brainchild of onetime Internet piracy cop Dmitry Shapiro. After a year and a half of public testing, the site formally opens for business stocked with more than 100,000 videos by amateurs and professionals.

As mainstream television networks and studios seek new online outlets, Shapiro hopes to take advantage of their growing discontent with Internet giant YouTube. To that end, he has found an investor with a distinct Hollywood pedigree: former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner, who serves on Veoh's board of directors.

Veoh is one of an emerging group of online video sites seeking to move beyond pratfalls and karaoke.

"You may have cut your teeth on YouTube," Shapiro said. "But if you really want to broadcast, if you want to be a producer of video, Veoh is the place you need. It's for YouTube graduates."

YouTube declined to comment.

Veoh will compete for viewers and advertisers with a crowded field, including Google's YouTube and Joost, the Internet television venture started by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, creators of file-swapping's onetime bête noire, Kazaa. Veoh seeks to differentiate itself with longer videos, high-quality pictures and sophisticated online publishing tools.

Eisner has been influential in brokering deals between Veoh and content partners. United Talent Agency plans a Veoh channel dedicated to showcasing new talent and content. Thanks to Eisner's efforts, celebrity magazine Us Weekly is creating an entertainment channel on Veoh.

Like Break.com, Revver and other online video sites, Veoh plans to pay publishers based on the audience their videos attract.

"The challenge for Veoh in the short term is more about attracting those talented content creators," Joe Laszlo, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research in New York. "I think it's going to be interesting to watch that part of the competitive market unfold this year."

Veoh allows producers to automatically distribute videos of any length or picture resolution to multiple sites, including YouTube, Google Video, MySpace and Facebook. The video producers can also charge for their content. This puts Veoh in competition with Brightcove, a company in Cambridge, Mass., that also offers Web syndication and billing.

For viewers, Veoh touts DVD-quality video that can be viewed on a full computer screen, not just in a small window. Veoh hopes to make money by collecting transaction fees for videos offered for rental or purchase and by selling ads around free videos.

"There are few advertisers who will want to advertise on short grainy video clips," Shapiro said.

However, YouTube's snack-size videos still have strong appeal — 30 million U.S. Web surfers visited the site in January, according to research firm ComScore Media Metrix. Veoh had 657,000 visitors — a smaller online viewership than Break.com, Metacafe.com or vMix.com.

"Any independent video service like Veoh, they're aiming awfully high if they're aiming to take on YouTube at its own game," Laszlo said.

"They're trying to play a slightly different game than YouTube. I think there's room for success here. There's definitely room for failure."