Comcast Joins NBC-News Venture

News Corp. (NWS Quote - Cramer on NWS - Stock Picks), GE's (GE Quote - Cramer on GE - Stock Picks) NBC Universal and Comcast (CMCSA Quote - Cramer on CMCSA - Stock Picks) set about a video distribution venture.

Comcast's Comcast.net and Fancast.com will serve as key distribution sites for the News-NBC video plan, which the companies rolled out last month. Observers immediately tabbed the setup as a rival to Google's (GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks) YouTube.

Comcast unveiled Fancast last week with its acquisition of movie information site Fandango.

Under Monday's agreement, Comcast will also provide available nonexclusive content for domestic distribution on NBCU and News Corp's site from Comcast Networks, including E!, Style, G4, Versus and Golf Channel and will become the venture's first nonequity content provider.