DotComedy’s Tale of Two Approaches

NBC’s DotComedy is finally jumping on the user-generated content train, announcing the addition of a new channel of viewer-create videos. The site will allow viewer-submitted clips to be embedded on web pages, though isn’t adding that functionality yet for NBC’s original programming.

The best news is that the site now offers free downloads supported by Hiro — which I profiled last month. The Israeli company’s technology allows content providers to distribute video downloads with dynamically updated advertising that can be freely traded, even over file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent.

In terms of its UGC effort, DotComedy may be a bit late on the hype curve. ManiaTV just chose to eschew viewer submissions. And video-sharing service Vimeo is now promoting the site’s ability for users to restrict access to their videos to a group of contacts — rather than for all the world to see.