Sab Kanaujia, a VP at NBC's Digital Media, recently outlined NBC Universal's social-networking plan on his blog, explaining that NBC doesn't want to buy a social-networking site but instead instead want to build a platform and integrate it with the company's existing online properties (via paidContent).

Kanaujia adds that NBC is already working on a social networking platform that will "enable users to self-express and find, interact and share with other like-minded users. We're not launching separate stand-alone destination(s), ala MySpace, Facebook, etc."

NBC wants to eventually build online communities around its existing properties, such as popular TV shows. Kanaujia adds that if fans of a show are going to create a group built around the show, the company wants them to do it on NBC's site, instead of MySpace.

One challenge that NBC will face is how to give users a reason to start out at NBC rather than join an existing community site. Without integrating its approach with existing social-networking sites, NBC offers potential visitors no reason to go to its site to interact with any online communities the company may have created there.