MySpace teams up with BBC to reach global audience

THE online community MySpace is partnering with the BBC to bring some of the British broadcaster’s programmes to a worldwide audience in the site’s first global content deal involving a big network.

The move, which was announced yesterday, continues MySpace’s push to become a hub for video, music and other content and more similar to Internet portals like Yahoo Inc.

By contrast, MySpace’s chief rival, Facebook, has largely focused on messaging, networking and other social tools. MySpace, owned by media conglomerate News Corp, will present selected BBC programmes through its video platform, MySpaceTV.

The clips are to include interviews with celebrities, comedy sketches and classic series such as Doctor Who and Robin Hood.

The BBC already has a deal with Google Inc’s YouTube, allowing the popular video-sharing site to show excerpts of news and entertainment programmes.

Visitors to MySpace will be able to share clips with friends through such means as embedding them into their personal profile pages.

“With the global nature of the deal, this is a great opportunity to put the best shows from the BBC in front of new audiences,” Simon Danker, director of digital media for BBC Worldwide, said in a statement.

The BBC and MySpace will share advertising revenue under the deal.

MySpace executive vice president for marketing and content Jeff Berman said the deal “reflects a fast-approaching internet future defined by co-operation between corporations”.

The BBC, funded with a fee paid by TV users in Britain, tries to generate additional revenue through distribution deals around the world. In the US it operates BBC America.

MySpace has localised versions of MySpaceTV in seven languages and 27 countries or regions.