After the two companies failed to reach an agreement, first discussed in October, on how to treat Viacom-produced videos on the video-sharing website, Viacom has demanded that YouTube pull its 100,000 plus videos from its site. (WSJ; subscription required) Viacom owns MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET; all its networks' content would fall under this removal order.

Viacom's order comes a few weeks after Fox issued a subpoena to YouTube demanding that it release the name of the person(s) who illegally uploaded full episodes of "24" and "The Simpsons" to the site.

Viacom claims that the YouTube clips generated more than 1.2 billion video streams, for which the conglomerate is receiving no compensation.

While YouTube has signed licensing deals with CBS Corp. and NBC Universal, other media properties -- such as Viacom and Fox -- do not have such deals, and continue to challenge YouTube's dissemination of their content.

Viacom reports that, "Our hope is that YouTube and Google will support a fair and authorized distribution model that allows consumers to continue to enjoy our very popular content now and in the future."

But as Tech Crunch's Michael Arrington predicted on October 9th, Viacom, Fox, CBS and NBC are considering launching a competitor to YouTube, a site that would give them full control, and all the profit of their content.

ViTrue only yesterday announced a deal with Viacom's MTV to create a branded video-sharing community. Reggie Bradford, CEO of ViTrue, notes, "Most of the user-generated video sites out there remind me of the lawless 'wild, wild west'-- anything goes. Today's announcement from Viacom is yet another shift toward media companies establishing law and order to protect their important assets.

"Major media organizations need to balance audience participation and copyright protection. Forward-looking companies are doing this by taking steps to adopt technologies and tools that involve their audiences in the video-creation process while folding the entire process back into their brand to ensure their copyrighted content, brands and image are kept intact."