Sony (SNE) announced that it was renaming its online video site Grouper, which the company bought in August, 2006 for $65 million, as Crackle.
The re-launched Crackle will focus heavily on original videos developed for the Web but Josh Felser, the founder and co-president of the site formerly known as Grouper, told me in an interview last week that he did not think Crackle’s biggest competition would really be from YouTube, the online video site that Google bought last year for nearly $1.7 billion.
Felser said Crackle plans to feature user-generated videos that are a bit more professional than the clips that tend to become popular on YouTube. To that end, Crackle will act as a studio that will fund the creation of videos as opposed to just being a place where amateur users can upload content.
The site will have several different channels, including ones for comedy, animation, music and reality. Felser said Crackle will also hold contests and the creators of winning videos will be offered development deals with Crackle as well as a chance to go to Los Angeles to pitch movie or TV ideas to Sony’s Columbia Pictures unit or Sony Pictures Television division.
Source: CNNMoney
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