Read this then check out my commentary on how News Corp. can corner the market for music and TV online in the next few months. This is from Toby Elkin of Mediapost:
So, here’s a surprise: the action on the MySpace music channel outpaces the other online music venues.
According to JupiterResearch, the rambunctious and infectious community action on MySpace Music exceeds Yahoo Music, AOL Music, and MTV.com. In fact, Jupiter says that 48 percent of music fans find out about music from friends. This is most certainly true.
All right, so we already know that part of what set MySpace apart from Friendster was the music element on the site. We also know that part of the appeal of MySpace to News Corp. was that unlike most media conglomerates, News Corp. lacked a record label, so buying MySpace gave News Corp. a play on both the Web and music.
A couple of days ago, I came across TV.IGN.com. IGN, of course, is the other $600M gorilla that News Corp. bought last year. Initially, I thought that TV.IGN.com was IGN’s video channel, but it turns out that it’s actually IGN’s TV programming guide. I recommended to IGN (well, it’s not like they ever listen to me, but you know what I mean) should combine its social networking platform Clubs.IGN.com with TV.IGN.com and allow its 30 million 13-34 year olds to come up with their own TV “programming-plus”: you know, what they watch, what they like, what they dislike, what they recommend, story outlines and ideas they would like to see and so on. Toss in the benefits of word of mouth and social networking, and suddenly TV.IGN.com is the best way to promote TV online to the much sought after 13-34 male demo.
Considering that apparently, IGN developed its social networking platform without the input of cousin MySpace, it does not take a genius to figure out that there is some healthy / friendly competition between MySpace and IGN within the ranks of the News Corp. dynasty.
As such, while MySpace continues its love affair with music (they did launch a record label last year, after all), then IGN might be wise to leverage its video game loving audience and develop TV.IGN.com onto Clubs.IGN.com and become MySpace’s answer to TV online. Of course, what is interesting is that MySpace has launched its own YouTube style video service, so that could very well become a YouTube for amateur video makers, while IGN becomes the place for networks to promote their own shows.
Then, if that happens, in one short year, Mr. Rupert Murdoch and Ross Levinsohn will have - through two acquisitions adding up to $1.2 billion mind you - cornered the TV and Music markets online.
Not only can TV.IGN.com become a programming guide for TV, but it should / could leverage content from FOX to bolster the programming. Once it has programming from the likes of Family Guy, American Idol, 24 and so on, it can surely sway Walt Disney (ABC, ESPN), GE Universal (NBC), and Viacom (CBS, Comedy Central) to use the channel to promote its own TV programming. The structure of the deal could go either way: News Corp. pays a licensing fee to other media companies and keeps all ad revenues OR News Corp. splits ad revenues OR News Corp. sells the content and splits the revenue with other media firms.
Either way, the media companies might work together since they all fear Google. And once the audience is there (the key audience being the 13-34 that IGN already has plenty of), it might be too tempting for News Corp.’s competitors to pass up the opportunity to use a high trafficked web network to promote their TV programming.
You doubt this? Think YouTube. The ”Napster of TV” as some have called it already has befriended some TV stations and networks that envy its audience and their propensity to watch videos. As much as Viacom, Walt Disney and Universal GE hate to open up their content to News Corp., it just might be the only way they can avoid being Googled.
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June 4th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
[…] A few days later, I basically recommended to IGN that they combine Blogs.IGN.com/Clubs.IGN.com with TV.IGN.com and create a community that would be the TV equivalent of MySpace (for music). Basically, users could create their own programming guides and what not. I actually emailed IGN’s CEO and my former boss about this idea, here’s the email: I came across TV.IGN.com, you might already be doing this, but I didn’t see it… So, you should integrate Clubs.IGN.com into TV.IGN.com and encourage your audience to develop their own programming guides. It’s good that you have editors developing guides of what’s on FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc… But if you get a social networking element going and encourage users to create the guides too, then you will have millions of 13-34 year old’s having their own TV guides. That will make the section a lot more interactive and sticky. Imagine people checking out what others their age watch, storylines they want to see etc. Considering that: “So, here’s a surprise: the action on the MySpace music channel outpaces the other online music venues. According to JupiterResearch, the rambunctious and infectious community action on MySpace Music exceeds Yahoo Music, AOL Music, and MTV.com. In fact, Jupiter says that 48 percent of music fans find out about music from friends. This is most certainly true.” You can make TV.IGN.com the TV equivalent of MySpace (and how it has cornered music) and YouTube. Ideally, you should start to play FOX programming snippets on the TV.IGN channel, given how much Walt Disney, Viacom, Universal GE are all afraid of Google’s video plans, you just might get them convinced to offer up their content too for the channel, either on a licensing arrangement or ad revenue share. That way, before you know it, you have both a MySpace and a YouTube on your hands. You already have the audience, you sort of have half the content, the rest will fall in place. Enjoy Ash […]
June 6th, 2006 at 11:26 am
[…] - I recommended News Corp./Fox Interactive Media/IGN to combine their TV.IGN.com and Blogs.IGN.com channels to allow their audience to develop programming guides, arguing that this could make IGN the TV equivalent of MySpace and music. The next day, YouTube decided to do just that and allow its users to become de facto network executives, creating programming guides for others to share, view, watch, enjoy etc. […]