Yahoo's 'YouTube' may debut this summer

Yahoo is gearing up for a summer launch of a new video service geared to compete with YouTube, AdAge reported today.

News first leaked that Yahoo was interested in building its own streaming video site back in March, with the company apparently approaching many popular creators currently partnering with Google’s YouTube. One of the main draws in grabbing YouTube talent was apparently promising a larger share of revenue on videos, which is something YouTube has also been trying to figure out. (It recently announced that it would soon let viewers crowdfund new YouTube channel content, for instance.)

Yahoo has been trying to grab a video service since last year, when the company failed to acquire DailyMotion for upwards of $300 million. Chief exec Marrissa Mayer has also stated many times that the company wants to increase its presence with video content, which would in turn allow it to grab a larger chunk of revenue from video ad spending. Over the past year, Yahoo has signed an exclusive deal to run Saturday Night Live content, and it recently boosted its media talent by hiring broadcast news star Katie Couric. There’s also a slate of original episodic content set to debut on the site.

As for the company’s current plans, AdAge’s sources indicate that Yahoo originally intended to reveal the new YouTube rival last month, but contract negotiations delayed those plans until later this year.