NewSite: Looks Like a Billion?

It has no name and no firm launch date, but the buzz surrounding the NBC Universal and News Corp. online-video joint venture (a.k.a. "NewSite") has kept its electrical charge.

According to a report in The New York Times citing anonymous sources, media investment firm Providence Equity Partners has invested $100 million in the JV for a 10% stake, valuing the entity at a whopping $1 billion.

The NewSite thingy, remember, is going to essentially offer repurposed content from existing broadcast and cable TV shows, though conceivably it will include original stuff too.

So, $1 billion? Yeah, yeah, Google "paid" $1.65 billion for the legally-fraught YouTube. But that kind of valuation strikes me as awfully optimistic. Especially because lots of people still like watching longish-form TV content on… TVs.

Then again, if the Chicago Cubs are potentially worth more than $1 billion, maybe anything’s possible.