Reuters has announced a new affiliate program that will enable blogs, news organizations and other online publishers to feature Reuters news video on their Web sites.

The video from Reuters will not require any installations from visitors to the affiliate's sites, rather it will be embedded into the sites and compatible with Windows and Mac.

But here's the catch. According to a report at News.com, during the pilot period of the affiliate program, the video player will be offered free of charge to any participating Web site, but it may contain ads.

The program is projected to fully launch in the first part of 2006, and at that time, affiliate sites may have the option of showing ads or paying a license fee.

Oh, and there is no commission involved.

Granted, Reuters has historically charged sites for the privilege of offering their video on sites, but they seem to be confused about affiliate marketing.

As affiliates help to broaden the Reuter's audience and further build their brand, the affiliates get what? Not a share of the ads that run on the videos at their sites.

In the past, there were some syndicated news affiliate programs out there, such as EchoFactor and Moreover. While neither paid affiliates for displaying the news, they did pay commission to affiliates who got other Webmasters to sign up to display their news.

Then again, that model seems to have gone extinct.

I do have to wonder how many sites would rather feature Reuters video for no compensation, when they could put up some targeted affiliate offers and make cash.