Guardian Unlimited: MySpace is to take on YouTube’s status as the world’s leading video-sharing website by renaming and relaunching its own service as MySpaceTV.
The video section of MySpace will be given its own web presence, www.myspacetv.com, and built up as a destination in its own right.
Despite being the second biggest video-sharing website behind YouTube, MySpace’s offering has not secured the same sort of profile.
The new standalone website will also incorporate more professionally created content.Last week MySpace signed a deal with Sony for its “minisodes” – five-minute clips of 80s comedies such as Silver Spoons and Diff’rent Strokes.
MySpace TV is also likely to be a distribution channel for programming from the online video joint venture under development by NBC Universal and Fox, part of News Corporation.
The new website will tie in to the profiles created by MySpace users, as well as being accessible to a general online audience.
MySpaceTV is being launched tailored to 15 international territories, which parallel YouTube’s country-specific versions of its video-sharing website.
top