Shots fired: The Yahoo video player (YHOO) is set to debut this summer — and is expected to rival Google’s (GOOG) premier video service.
AdAge is reporting that Yahoo is in advanced talks with video producers to debut the stepped-up version of the service, which industry insiders have expected to have debuted in April.
The Yahoo video player will mirror YouTube’s ease of sharing, but with a few upgrades.
Via AdAge:
But for video creators dissatisfied with YouTube, Yahoo has a compelling pitch: more generous revenue-sharing deals, or fixed ad rates that are significantly higher than YouTube is currently delivering to creators.
Like YouTube, creators will be allowed to establish their own channel pages and host their videos on Yahoo. Like YouTube’s video player, Yahoo’s video player will be embeddable on other sites.
Those that sign a contract with Yahoo will get a publishing dashboard and have the ability to distribute across Yahoo properties including the home page and blogging service Tumblr, as well as a network of non-Yahoo sites.
Currently, Google easts up 45% of ad revenue from video, but Yahoo will offer more incentives and revenue for the video producers themselves.
The ad rate may also be higher.
Users will be allowed to post videos to both YouTube and Yahoo — with no contracts that the content be exclusive.
Goog stock is up 6% year to date.
