The big free video hosting sights are starting to drop away.

From: Stage6 <DivX_Stage6@divx-newsletters.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Subject: Stage6 to Shut Down on February 28
To:

I'm Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc.,
the company behind the service. I'm writing this message today to
inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008.
Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you'll be able
to view and download videos until Thursday.

I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many
Stage6 users, and I'd like to take a few moments to explain the
reasons behind our decision.

We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and
viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an
experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not
succeed.

In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own
initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We
helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great
videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that
it's possible to distribute true high definition video on the
Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by
offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile devices
and other products beyond the PC.

So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is
that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise
that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we
are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other
details involved, but at the end of the day it's really as simple as
that.

Now, why didn't we think of that before we decided to create Stage6
in the first place, you may ask? That's a good question. When we first
created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer
a true high-quality video experience online because other video
destinations on the Internet simply weren't providing that to users. A
gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it.

As Stage6 grew quickly and dramatically (accompanied by an explosion
of other sites delivering high-quality video), it became clear that
operating the service as a part of the larger DivX business no longer
made sense. We couldn't continue to run Stage6 and focus on our
broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to enjoy high-quality
video on any device. So, in July of last year we announced that we
were kicking off an effort to explore strategic alternatives for
Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided we would either have
to sell it, spin it out into a private company or shut it down.

I won't (and can't, really) go into too much detail on those first
two options other than to say that we tried really hard to find a way
to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling
it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was
possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and
cease operation of the service.

So that's where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease to
exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will
continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices arrive on the
market making it easy to move video beyond the PC. Products powered by
DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video,
photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting
retail outlets. We remain committed to empowering content creators to
deliver high-quality video to a wide audience, and we'll continue to
offer services that will make it easy to find videos online in the
DivX format.

It's been a wild ride, and none of it would have been possible
without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6
everything that it was.

--Tom