AP/MSN video deal for newspapers

Will video start sprouting from your local newspaper site?

It could. AP and MSN have announced a deal where AP expects to provide as many as 50 video clips a day for free. MSN provides the tech support, including an MSN player based on Windows Media Player. MSN also gets to sell the ads that wll run on the service, which starts early next year.

This could get interesting. Although AP's release says it's ready to supply newspapers and broadcasters, Terry Heaton writes in comments that is pretty much a play for newspapers and that the real threat is taking ad dollars away from broadcasters. Cory Bergman agrees.

But turnkey video for your Web site, even if it isn't local and everyone else has it? Who can resist, especially in an industry that has taken shovelware to high art?

(A few more details from AP story on Seattle P-I site.)