Search engine Yahoo! India launched its premium video service that will provide users access to genuine content and offer advertisers a new revenue platform. Yahoo! Video will provide original content across multiple genres such as news, entertainment, lifestyle and movies from 35 content producers which include NDTV, Star TV, Shemaroo, Headlines Today, PVR Pictures and Ultra. It promises high-quality video experience, free for all internet users.

"Online video consumption is growing at a rapid pace. However, a large portion of this is user generated content, which is often a rip-off of content. So, a lot of the content available is illegal and pirated," Yahoo! India Managing Director Arun Tadanki told reporters here.

"What we will offer is a safe and piracy-free destination delivering high quality and strictly original content," he added.

According to a recent ComScore report, over 30 million unique users in India watch online videos every month and on an average, each user watches about 58 videos a month.

Yahoo!'s biggest competitor in the segment would be Youtube, which features user-generated content.

"What we offer users is a clutter-free viewing experience. So, when they access Yahoo! Videos, they can be sure they get the genuine video they are looking for. Also, since users will not be allowed to rip videos from the sites, all copyrights are protected," Tadanki said.

The move follows Yahoo India's launch of Movieplex, which provides users licensed full-length movies for free. Users will have access to videos in seven languages including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil.

Driven by advertisements, Yahoo! Videos will work on a revenue sharing model, Tadanki said.