YouTube's position as the Internet's most popular destination for watching videos is one of many risks and rewards. While being very popular, the video hosting website is currently facing a number of legal bouts from several media houses including Viacom, which threw a massive $1 billion copyright infringement suit at YouTube last week. YouTube's parent company Google said, however, that it is merely a hosting company, and that laws within the DMCA allow it to continue to serve its users without fault.

Today, YouTube will be facing a new foe in the form of NBC and News Corp. The two media giants have decided to join forces and plan the launch of a new online video website that will host users uploads as well as have TV shows and movies -- all for free. NBC will host popular TV shows on the new site while New Corp.'s Fox will host popular movies.

The biggest part of the NBC and News Corp. cooperation is that both companies have also partnered up with some of Google's biggest competitors -- AOL, Microsoft, MySpace and Yahoo. Together, content from NBC and News Corp. will be distributed through the above four companies. "This is a game changer for Internet video," said Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp. Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBC expressed a similar outlook on the partnership. "Anyone who believes in the value of ubiquitous distribution will find this announcement incredibly exciting," said Zucker. According to the release:

At launch, full episodes and clips from current hit shows, including Heroes, 24, House, My Name Is Earl, Saturday Night Live, Friday Night Lights, The Riches, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, The Tonight Show, Prison Break, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader and Top Chef, plus hits from the studios’ vast television libraries, will be available free, on an ad-supported basis, within a rich consumer experience featuring personalized video playlists, mashups, online communities and video search.

With a total of 65 million possible viewers on MySpace online, NBC and News Corp. hope to be making a big impact on the online video industry. It is clear that YouTube poses a significant threat to traditional TV and video media, and popularity is growing on a daily basis.