VentureBeat

French video-sharing site Dailymotion, which has long fancied itself as a leading competitor to YouTube outside of the U.S. market, is reportedly seeking more cash even after raising $34 million two years ago. It is still losing money, according to PaidContent and the Stratégies newsletter.

It is also reportedly appointing Ian Brotherston, formerly of BT and AOL, as the company’s new chief executive, a move that may be announced later today. He replaces Mark Zaleski. We’ve sought comment and will update if we hear back. Zaleski, also chairman, will remain non-executive chairman.

This news comes as YouTube widens its lead on DailyMotion, even in France.

Dailymotion’s 2008 revenue is reportedly €12.5 million ($16.2 million), which, while solid, is not enough to endure the sort of bandwidth costs that a popular video site must absorb. In fact, YouTube is reportedly losing anywhere from $513 million to $663 million annually because of bandwidth costs, which translates into between $1.4 million and $1.65 million every day. But the difference is that YouTube is owned by a wealthy parent, Google.

Dailymotion’s costs probably aren’t helped by its early move to embrace high-definition video, which we reported on more than year ago.

YouTube’s video site surpassed 100 million viewers for the first time ever in January, according to figures released by Internet audience measurement firm comScore.

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Tags: co:dailymotion, co:YouTube