MySpace To Launch Branded Video Channels

MySpace didn’t purchase Photobucket for $300 million as a gesture of good will. They simply wanted it for their own. To have it as a good (and relatively cheap) infrastructure to host media.

And now MySpace has announced that it will be launching "branded channels" over the next few months in which a variety of media companies can place their content for consumption by the online masses. The list includes: The New York Times, Reuters, National Geographic, IGN Entertainment, and others. MySpace will undoubtedly use the media-friendly foundation that is/was Photobucket to work the backend for it’s new partners.

If this isn’t a play to give YouTube intense competition, color me fooled.

The signs are obvious. Photobucket, the second most popular video host on the Internet, has clearly pressed strongly to get to where it is today, and under the ownership of MySpace, it will zealously seek more and more videos, produced by both amateurs and professionals. What better way for News Corp to show Google it means business than inking deals with major media companies (other than its own) to have high quality content lure eyes and ears over to its side of the market? It’s no secret Rupert Murdoch seeks to create financial hits from his purchases - whether they are founded in old media or new media - as would any businessman seeking a good/great return on an investment. The MySpace-Photobucket team is simply a circle finally made complete, and the fact that the two are working hand in hand quickly and assuredly to do things few are doing in such a significant way only strengthens the notion that they’re in this game to win.

They’ll have to make their moves swiftly and within a relatively short period of time, however, if one thinks of just how fleeting Web-based trends can be, particularly with things moving faster and faster every year – every quarter even, in some cases.

As long as MySpace and Photobucket scale correctly and don’t overload viewers with a hodgepodge of items which haven’t been developed/produced specifically for the ADD-infused social networking crowds, they’ll continue to do better. But only for a few short years. Big things don’t stay big for long anymore.