Everybody knows: If you want to see video on the Web, you go to YouTube.
Except not everybody does: By at least one count, the upstart Web site trails old fogies like News Corp.’s (nyse: NWS – news – people ) MySpace and Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO – news – people ) in the number of video streams served per month.
Yet YouTube’s pull is so strong that it is changing the way established Web giants think about the way they serve up Internet video: News Corp. in particular is overhauling its Web sites to combat YouTube’s appeal.
Last month News Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin told a media conference that MySpace’s video offerings are “one of the things we’re going to invest in the next several months.” The following week, News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said he expects a revamped MySpace to wrest the video lead away from YouTube by the end of November.
