Bloomberg BusinessWeek is reporting that the company is in talks to do so, citing two people with knowledge with the situation. This would reportedly put Google owning less than 10% of the company, and give Vevo a $500 valuation.

Of course, the deal would keep Vevo, an important YouTube partner, pumping music videos into Google’s major video site (which has become a more important property for the company than ever in recent years).

As reported in December, the contract between YouTube and Vevo was set to expire, but the contract also had some kind of four-month extension clause, which would really push the deadline a bit further in the future. Either way, it’s still looming.

Bloomberg shares a statement from YouTube’s Chris Dale, who says, “While we don’t comment on individual negotiations, we always hope to renew our relationships with valuable partners so we can continue to provide YouTube users with the best possible music experience,” Chris Dale, spokesman for Google, said in an e-mailed statement.”

Earlier this week, Vevo announced a new partnership with Disney, which will see Disney curating family-friendly music video content on Vevo, and Vevo providing music videos to Disney.com. The two will also collaborate on original programming.

Presumably, the experience will be more family-friendly than the pictured “Ke$ha Vevo Takeover”.

The two will also collaborate on the production of music-based original programming, such as event coverage, music video premieres and live music experiences with Disney recording artists.

“Music is universally loved and shared by people of all ages,” said Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff. “We are very proud to partner with Disney to offer quality music programming for families to enjoy together and on the viewing platform of their choice.”

“Music is a key component of the Disney.com offering and deepens the premium family entertainment experience we offer Guests online,” said Jimmy Pitaro , co-president of Disney Interactive. “And now we are amplifying the Disney experience by partnering with the world’s leading digital music video platform.”

Last month, The Guardian reported that Google was poised to take about a 10%stake in Vevo, but that the deal had not been signed yet.

Vevo was founded by Universal and Sony.

Well, YouTube’s deal with Vevo reportedly expires on Sunday, and Vevo (sometimes referred to as the “Hulu for Music Videos”) and Google (which owns YouTube of course) have not reached an agreement to extend the partnership, according to Peter Kafka at All Things D, citing “people familiar with negotiations”. Kafka writes:

But that doesn’t mean Vevo’s videos will disappear from YouTube, or that Vevo.com will go dark. The existing contract has what amounts to a 120-day extension, which essentially means that the real deadline for Vevo and Google won’t roll around for another four months.

That said, people familiar with the negotiations say the two sides are in “intense” discussions, with the hopes of wrapping something up much sooner than that.

Vevo ranked number four on comScore’s top online video sites in the U.S., behind Google Sites, Yahoo Sites, and NDN. The firm counted over 53,000 unique visitors for the month. YouTube had over 182,000, and no doubt, more than a few of those led to Vevo video views.

Google has expressed interest in renewing “relationships with valuable partners,” and one would have to assume that major music labels are considered as such, particularly with the amount of music searching that goes on on YouTube. Without VEVO’s music videos, users are going to have a hard time finding a lot of stuff they’re looking for. This is a pretty important deal for Google, as it seeks to get people staying on site more.

Earlier this year, Nielsen named Vevo YouTube’s top partner at 694,907 total streams in June.

YouTube just launched a redesign and extended its guide feature to all devices. It’s also making deals to have YouTube shows shown on airplanes.

And you can watch it live on The Killers’ VEVO channel on YouTube.

The UNSTAGED concert series kicked off in 2010, and allows viewers to not only watch the performance live, but interact by switching camera angles. Previous artists have allowed fans to vote on which songs they will play for their encore, for example. Former UNSTAGED artists include Coldplay, Jack White, Mary J. Blige, Usher, My Morning Jacket, and Duran Duran. Previous big-name directors include Gary Oldman, David Lynch, and Todd Haynes.

The Killers are also dropping their new album “Battle Born” today, in tandem with their live streamed concert.

“To pair such visually gifted musicians with Werner Herzog is nothing short of inspired. Herzog is an iconoclast of the first order, a German director whose work compels, fascinates, and alienates in equal measure. Herzog is drawn to the margins, outliers and extremes whether in his fiction or documentary offerings,” says YouTube in a blog post.

YouTube had over 136 million unique viewers and they streamed well over 16 billion videos.

Now we’re back with some more information from Nielsen ratings group informing us that YouTube’s top five partners are supplying viewers with almost 1.5 billion monthly video streams, as measured throughout the month of May.

Vevo, Warner Music Group (WMG), Fullscreen, Maker, and Machinima make up the top five partners, and all of them work with YouTube build their audience and monetize content.

Vevo tops the list of partners with 41,000 unique monthly viewers, and almost 695,000 videos streamed throughout the month of May. Warner Music Group comes in second, but trails behind significantly with only about 22,895 visitors and 172,985 videos streamed.

Machinima takes third in the ranking and had 17,625 visitors in May and streamed almost 430,000 videos. So, not as many visitors, but a lot more videos streamed. Fullscreen, comes in fourth with 12,484 visitors and just under 80,000 videos. Maker placed fifth, with just under 10,000, but 93,588 videos streamed.

Insights on the top five YouTube Partners:

* More than half of each channel’s unique viewers were under the age of 35.

* About 1 in 6 Americans who watched online video during May 2012 streamed video on the WMG YouTube channel (almost 23 million unique viewers).

* Vevo led the top five partners in total streams (695 million), while Machinima averaged the most streams per viewer, 24 in May 2012.

* Machinima also captured the highest composition of male viewers (62.6%), while others hovered closer to a 50/50 female/male split.

* Fullscreen and Vevo skewed toward a slightly older demographic, as 15.3 and 15.7 percent of their viewers are 50 years or older, respectively.

* Maker drew 9.7 million unique viewers who averaged nearly ten streams per viewer.

So there you have it, YouTube still reigns supreme as an online streaming video provider. They continue to find new ways to deliver unbelievable amounts of content and somehow pay the bills at the same time.

As part of the American Expressed Unstaged series, Chesney’s performance will be melting hearts and faces with songs from his newly released album, “Welcome to the Fish Bowl.” Defying what is a largely accepted practice in rock ‘n roll of never starting on time, the show starts promptly at 8:30PM EST / 5:30PM PST over at http://www.youtube.com/KennyChesneyVEVO. In the meantime, blow your lid off with the promo below:

It’s of note that Chesney’s live-streamed performance will be directed by Jonathan Demme, who won an Academy Award for Best Director on his work with Silence of the Lambs. Yes, THAT Silence of the Lambs. Given that was one of the most psychologically unnerving films ever, you might unwittingly be tuning in to a Hannibal Lector joint.

Watch out.

Vevo’s present deal with YouTube is finished at the end of this year, so Google and Facebook are exploring investment options. Vevo has likewise signed up with investment bank Allen & Co. to explore its own options, which might include bringing in a new investor, selling outright or going public.

Vevo had recently launched a redesign, and has seen a 600% boost in Facebook-published content viewership.The new player has taken advantage of Facebook’s Open Graph, and saw six times as many Facebook-watched videos since February, putting the latest count at 4.5 million. New user registration is also up by 142%, with the platform adding 500,000 new members. VEVO Facebook impressions were up 181% as well, at 171 million. Basically, it wouldn’t seem like a such a bad idea for the platform to more officially look at the social network.

Though, YouTube is still Vevo’s top partner channel, garnering the platform 48 million unique viewers in April. Presently, Vevo is the third largest video streaming site online, behind Google and Yahoo!. Facebook sits at fourth place. As a whole, VEVO logged 254 million video streams worldwide during Q1, 2012, a 32% jump from Q4, 2011. iPhone and iPad views were up as well, at 28% and 22% respectively. Engagement is also up as well, with viewers watching an average of 4.3 videos in March, up from 3.8 in February, spending 15.2 minutes on the site, up from 13.1. Vevo has some decisions to make at year’s end.

VEVO’s new player has taken advantage of Facebook’s Open Graph, and saw six times as many Facebook-watched videos since February, putting the latest count at 4.5 million. New user regristration is also up by 142%, with the platfrom adding 500,000 new members. VEVO Facebook impressions were up 181% as well, at 171 million.

As a whole, VEVO logged 254 million video streams worldwide during Q1, 2012, a 32% jump from Q4, 2011. iPhone and iPad views were up as well, at 28% and 22% respectively. Engagement is also up as well, with viewers watching an average of 4.3 videos in March, up from 3.8 in February, spending 15.2 minutes on the site, up from 13.1.

Like all things associated with Facebook, there is typically a bump in exposure – thing is, it’s not yet clear if the social network will figure out a way to better monetize this sort of thing, mainly via its ad content. It’s IPO has turned into a bit of snafu, and its stocks are doing far less than stellar. Time will tell how things play out for the potential next Myspace.

One of the biggest problems facing indie musicians has always been their ability to get their music out to the masses. Now VEVO and Ditto Music have teamed up to not only give indie artists a bigger platform, but also a way for them to make soe cash while they are at it.

When asked about the partnership, Rio Caraeff, President and CEO of VEVO had this to say: “VEVO supports independent artists and we’re thrilled to team-up with Ditto Music to help new acts reach global music fans.”

This partnership allows artists and labels who distribute content via Ditto Music to be able to set-up their own VEVO channel and receive royalties for any music videos viewed via the platform.

Jay Kerr, CTO of Ditto Music, agreed. “We’re really proud to be able to offer this. VEVO is an incredible service and this means that a whole new wave of indie artists will be able to take advantage of video monetization.”

If you are a current Ditto Music user you can take advantage of this program at no extra cost. Just go here to register.

In March VEVO announced that they were expanding where their service would be offered. This is a continuing trend for the music company and they are looking to grow more in the future.

Below is a chart describing the top online video content providers for the month of March:

The following chart depicts the number of video ads per site in the same time frame:

Regarding web video ad properties, over 8.3 billion ads were viewed as a whole, and Hulu beat out YouTube in the number of video ads it streamed, though was only able to reach roughly half of the the audience YouTube was able to achieve. Hulu showed 5 times as many total ad minutes over Google sites, and Brightroll Video Ad Network was the only firm that really competed with Hulu in the ad-minutes field.

YouTube also released its own partner data for the month of March, and music video platform Vevo came out on top, garnering 49 million unique viewers. The only segment that beat out Vevo was Machinima, which logged 69 minutes per video, as opposed to Hulu’s 62.5.

The same survey was taken by comScore back in November, showing similar numbers – Google’s YouTube has control of the online video segment, in which 83.5% of the U.S. web users accessed.