MySpace announced yesterday that the site will be adding branded video content from from a long list of partner companies. (Read Release here).
Here’s an excerpt from the release:
In the coming months, MySpace Video will launch “branded channels” for its global network with news outlets including National Geographic, The New York Times, Reuters, and lifestyle outlets including Animation Show, The Daily Reel, Expert Village, Flow, FOX’s IGN Entertainment, LX.TV, Octane TV, Kush TV, Ripe TV, Studio411, VBS.tv (from the makers of Vice Magazine), and Young Hollywood.
“The upcoming branded channel launch continues the growing momentum of MySpace Video,” said Jeff Berman, General Manager of Video and SVP of Public Affairs for MySpace. “We’re empowering our partners to customize their own video channels and use them as hubs to create a niche experience for users. Today’s announcement is a sign of things to come for MySpace Video.”
All branded channels will live inside MySpace Video and will contain varying video content offered by each respective partner. In response to user demand, the initial set of MySpace Video branded channels focuses on the categories of news and lifestyle.
I wonder who’s paying?
Whenever I read the term “partner” I wonder if it means a) the party that’s paying the bills b) the party that’s giving away something free or c) all of the above.
My guess is that Myspace has worked it out so that these various content producers hand over high quality, stand alone video packages to MySpace at no cost. These videos will add value to the Myspace user experience AND they will create demand for more of the same. MySpace users can then click through to the content producers’ sites. So the video channel becomes a “free sample” platform for the content producers even as it drives more activity on myspace. Ofcourse there will be ads in and around the videos too, and I imagine there might be some sort of revenue sharing happening there.
I wonder if Myspace users will be able to grab these videos and post them to YouTube? Probably not, eh?
My thoughts on all of this:
First of all let me admit that if Myspace were to stop short, we’d be right up its rear end.
What I mean by that (for those of you who missed the colloquialism) is that Myspace is showing us ways to monetize social nets by innovating with content partnerships and creating new aspects to its platform.
On example is impact.myspace.com, the new political channel on myspace. After I read about this channel I immediately made contact with the senior most political figure I know here in Indy, and began making plans for a political channel inside mycolts. I had long wondered how we might gain a share of the political advertising in our state. This is it! And politicians create all the content.
Next I watched how pages like myspace.com/army are allowing sponsors to tailor their brand messages and enter into “conversation” with the myspace audience. We’re mimicking this tactic closely in mycolts, but we’re planning to use our “groups” tool rather than our “profile” page to make custom pages for sponsors.
Here’s a mockup of a custom “group” page we created for Coke:
Overall, the entire concept of “channels” of content within the social network is very interesting. Once we saw the concept demonstrated, we began seeing possibilities all around us. So watch as we launch mycolts. In the coming months you’ll see content “partnerships” very similar to the onces Myspace is developing in video.
Maybe Myspace isn’t always right, but I sure appreciate the way they keep pushing forward their business. Just when I feel like we’re about to really figure out a way to do something new, Myspace beats us to it, and shows us things we hadn’t thought of. I expect we’ll always put a unique twist on our stuff, but it’s nice to have a successful model to emulate.
