There hasn't been a whole lot of fanfare for Comcast's (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Ziddio.com video-sharing site. There's a reason for that. The interface is slick, but the site's poorly populated with videos.
Yes, everybody wants to be the next YouTube. The problem is that YouTube is doing a fairly good job of making sure it will be the next YouTube.
Comcast hopes to change that next month, when it teams up with Facebook to launch a contest that will give Facebook's college crowd a chance at ultimate exhibitionism: television screen time. Users will submit video entries about their lives, and Comcast will present the top 10 entries as Facebook Diaries.
Maybe it won't be enough for Ziddio. Other contests, like a talent competition sponsored by RealNetworks' (NASDAQ:RNWK) Rhapsody and a shot to win a trip to cover the Tokyo Anime Fair, haven't made Ziddio a household word. Comcast's promise to feature the best uploads on its free On Demand network has only smoked out a few aspiring filmmakers.
As a cable giant, Comcast is connected, but a heavy Rolodex isn't enough to get past the casting couch in this virtual version of Hollywood. Even online portals like Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) AOL, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) haven't been able to make a dent in YouTube's hold as the video-sharing market leader. Yes, that is why Google recently acquired the company. However, behind YouTube there is a horde of hungry and creative video-sharing sites that are just starting to jockey for position.
The smaller sites are offering green to win over the Internet's stickiest webcam hobbyists. Revver offers revenue sharing to all of its users. Other sites like LiveVideo and CNET's (NASDAQ:CNET) Project Greenlight are bankrolling the budgets of promising directors.
Ziddio hasn't come to that point, though prizes and prestige aren't exactly shabby legal tender to barter with. Maybe the Facebook promotion will be the launching pad for Ziddio. Even though Facebook's coed crowds are known better for their ways with a still camera than moving pictures, it would expose the Ziddio site to a wide, attractive demographic group.
How do you get Ziddio noticed if that fails? Now that's a good premise for the next Ziddio contest.
Yahoo! and Time Warner are recommendations for Stock Advisor subscribers. CNET is a Rule Breakers newsletter pick.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz doesn't necessarily set his watch to YouTube, but he does respect its place in the grander scope of things. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
