A couple of interesting business deals were signed with MySpace this week, furthering the development of official deals with content providers and brands and the social networking site.
On Wednesday, news was released that MySpace had signed deals with a wide variety of news outlets and lifestyle brands for content channels through the News Corporation site in the coming months.
These include MySpace Video channels for the likes of The New York Times, National Geographic, IGN Entertainment, and a variety of others. The full list is available in this article from Daisy Whitney at TelevisionWeek.
According to Whitney, the Geographic channel will include short content from both current television features as well as the archives and will also launch Web originals, while, The Times will include video on a variety of news and entertainment topics.
Also included in these announcements was a channel for Reuters, which has been aggressive in expanding into new social networks and virtual worlds. Back in October, I wrote about the Reuters expansion with a Second Life bureau, with reporter Adam Pasick reporting from Second Life on a regular basis as "Adam Reuters."
At the time, I wrote:
Reuter's CEO says that, this "shows Reuters has a certain with-it-ness." While that statement may put its cool factor in jeopardy, his point isn't completely off-base, and it's an interesting experiment to retain the validity of a traditional trusted news source. It will be interesting to see what type of content Reuters' online bureau focuses on and whether it develops a reputation as being a serious source of news within Second Life or simply a fun extension--the questions will be what this virtual bureau means for quality journalism and what it means for the brand of a traditional journalism source.
Another deal that was announced regarding MySpace was an HBO exclusive which will make the pilot of new comedy Flight of the Conchords available on MySpace until Monday. Afterward, the pilot will be available on HBO.com, as well as various video sharing sites. More from Jon Lafayette at TelevisionWeek.
Meanwhile, I wrote recently about Bones' use of MySpace to provide some interactivity into the procedural drama show. TBS and MySpace teamed for the Sierra Mist Stand Up or Sit Down comedy contest, while Prom Queen launched within the MySpace community.
