HBO YouTube-Killer Sleeps With The Fishes
Jul 27th, 2007 | By James Lewin | Category: Citizen Media, Internet TV, Streaming VideoHBO’s attempt at creating a YouTube-killer, This Just In, is being shut down just six months after launching.
HBO’s venture is one of many “destination” video sites that hope to compete with YouTube by offering professionally produced content, like this iPod ad spoof:
This Just In focused on comedy videos. Unfortunately for HBO, a handful of pros trying to create funny videos have a hard time competing with the best results of millions of people posting videos to sites like YouTube.
 
[…] While demand for Internet video, both amateur and professional, is exploding, there’s also a long history of Internet video destination sites announced by traditional media that get spikes of hype and then quickly disappear. My Damn Channel’s site, which is much harder to navigate and much slower than established video destinations, looks like it could follow the path of HBO’s recently demised This Just In. HBO’s site, like My Damn Channel, promised to make a splash in the world of Internet video by offering professional mainstream content, but failed to make an impression and was put out of its misery in less than a year. […]