One reason why we’re very bullish on MySpace’s long term prospects is because it is positioning itself firmly as a media platform. Indeed, MySpace is forging many ties to secure its place as an entertainment hub. As social networking continues to face challenges in converting marketers’ interest to ad commitments, MySpace has taken crucial steps to position itself to benefit from online video advertising, in addition to social networking advertising (see this for the side-by-side analysis of these two).
MySpace is so massive, so important in any equation and so feared (especially now that it is a part of Rupert Murdoch’s all-encompassing News Corp.) that it is being attacked on all fronts:
- fending off Facebook in social networking,
- chasing YouTube in video distribution
- and vying with Yahoo! in terms of size (as measured by pageviews).
MySpace has tripled in size since News Corp. acquired MySpace’s parent Intermix for $580M in 2005 and continues to grow, adding features and launching initiatives at a breakneck pace.
Soon, News Corp. will launch an ad network, taking on even more players.
This morning, BBC Worldwide announced a partnership with MySpace TV. It’s a sign of the times, more than ever, companies partner and cooperate to compete in an ever greater fragmented world of distribution. It’s also a tacit admission of established media giants that their bigger competitors remain piracy, user-generated content and a lack of clear business model to power their forays online.
It’s no surprise then, that BBC chose to syndicate videos on MySpace TV, too:
The BBC has already found some success syndicating content on the Google Web site YouTube, where its videos have garnered more than three million views since last February. MySpaceTV is the second most popular video Web site, behind YouTube.
For the BBC, the latest deal offers an opportunity to widen the release of its content, trying to reach younger consumers where they socialize.
“This partnership continues our strategy of putting BBC content right at the heart of where audiences spend their time and watch video online,” Simon Danker, the director of digital media at BBC Worldwide, said in a statement.
The partnership is significant for the 13 local-language versions of MySpaceTV around the world, because MySpace’s previous collaborations with television networks have been restricted to certain markets. The BBC content will be available anywhere in the world on MySpace’s 23 regional sites.
“Our users are consuming an enormous amount of video,” said Jeff Berman, the general manager of MySpaceTV. With the deal, Mr. Berman is expected to be promoted to executive vice president for marketing and content. The former marketing chief left in November.
By way of disclosure, I should state that our own WatchMojo.com is very proud to have beaten BBC to the punch by signing up MySpace TV to distribute our video programming. In fact, we signed up to eight channels which I doubt any other content provider has (don’t worry BBC, you beat us in many other ways). Our channels include:
Auto | Business & Tech | Comedy | Fashion | Lifestyle | Sports | Travel | Video Games
I’ll also take this moment to mention, by the way, that our channels (old | new) on YouTube have generated more than 3M views… so we’re actually quite proud and shocked about that (again, BBC, don’t worry, I’m sure you have a lot going for you, too).
While indeed YouTube is the largest online video destination, do not underestimate MySpace’s awesome size and ability to drive awareness and streams.
Think Global, Act Local
More importantly, this allows MySpace to leverage BBC’s content to 23 local MySpace derivative sites.
Small Step for BBC, Giant Leap for Online Video
This is just one more validation of online video in general, MySpace TV and short form video in particular. Such an adoption by BBC will only make more marketers pause and take note than online video is far more than UGC and pirated programming. Of course, for this to really prove win-win, both sides need to adhere to a long-term outlook because while online video expenditures grows to past $1B in 2008, online video is awfully similar to where search was in 2001, in other words, a massive component of online video desperately looking for a revenue model.
But once the audience is there, and the content is there, then the money will follow.
As YouTube and MySpace continue to jockey for online video supremacy and the fight for #3 intensifies, the value of high-quality, professional content continues to soar… but of course, we are biased in saying that.
Disclosure: News Corp. was my employer from October 2005 to December 2005 after it bought the company that bought my old company. WatchMojo.com is now a content provider to MySpace TV.
The BBC - which has been doing radio since 1922 and TV since 1932 - never ceases to amaze me. I say this from an arm’s length and I don’t consume nearly enough of its content as I’d like, but listening to its key people, you sort of understand that it’s just a media company that knows what it’s doing and doesn’t hide it when it does something wrong or could do something better.
Bear in mind we produce a lot of video (approx. 4,000 clips, 100 hours) and have learned a lot. We’re also on the final steps of a complete redesign/relaunch. You’ve noticed the blogs and other areas, we have a few sections left, notably the 4,000 clips at WatchMojo.com. Point of the story: I totallu hear where the BBC is coming from and think their decisions make sense.
The head of BBC News Interactive wants the corporation to carry less online video and instead concentrate on improving the quality of its offering.Speaking at the Future of News Conference in London today, Pete Clifton told delegates that he wanted video that complemented stories, rather than repeating the offerings of streamed News 24 or the content of an accompanying text story.
“What I think we need do,” he later told Journalism.co.uk “Instead of putting up hundreds of pieces of video every week, is just to be more focused. We want to give them a higher profile so we can get to the point where we can embed them.
“Once we are doing that, I don’t think we can afford to disappoint the audience. That’s not to say that stuff is badly made, it may just not necessarily complement the text that we have written and it may not just suit the platform that it’s on.”
Video embedded into stories, he added, was proving to be popular with audiences in early experiments, as they tended to dispense with the traditional news format, instead just showing the footage necessary to enhance the text story sitting beneath the embedded player.
(…)
“With the embedded video, up to 40 per cent of people were watching it. In its normal format, when you watch it in a different place [in a standalone player], it’s about two per cent.
“How you present it will really transform this [popularity of web video]; broadband is a huge factor, but another one is the type of video that we put up.
“What irritates the hell out of people is if they click a story which says ‘Britain buys 100 new tanks for the war in Afghanistan’ they then click on the video and it’s just a bloke standing in Whitehall saying ‘they’re going to buy 100 new tanks for the war in Afghanistan’. The viewer could say ‘you’ve wasted my time’.
“We have done a lot of that. We have put up hundreds of pieces of video on the news site and too often they have replicated what the story has already said.
“We should think more about what that page does in the round and come up with a piece of video that absolutely complements the text… we should do less video but be much more focused on how it works and give it a higher profile where it can work alongside the story.”
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