Murdoch seeks to make interacvtive TV his space

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has teamed up with his daughter Elizabeth in a bid to make his online social network MySpace the leader in the hot new interactive TV space. “The convergence of the TV business with new social media is creating huge possibilities to reach global audiences,” Travis Katz, MySpace managing director international, said at the MIPTV audiovisual trade show.

Katz spoke shortly after MySpace, the world’s most popular social network which owned by Murdoch’s News International, announced a deal with Shine Group, headed by his daughter Elizabeth, that will enable its content to be distributed to television and traditional media outside of America and on DVD.

“Sites like MySpace are pushing out the boundaries of what media can do,” Katz said, and agreements like the one with Shine “will take us to the next level”. The deal includes developing local versions of MySpace programs in the 26 countries where the site operates. It will also enable MySpace to distribute its own TV content -- such as shows Roommates and Quarterlife -- as DVDs and to merchandising outlets worldwide.

The accord comes as the networking site is about to launch new TV series including a new coming-of-age drama, I love Chieftown, about an up-and-coming band trying to make it big. The 60 short four-to-five minute episodes, known as “webisodes”, are to launch after the summer, neatly tying in with MySpace’s plans to let unsigned bands sell their music on the site’s new music download service.

Horror movie fans can look forward to Beyond the Rave, the first new movie since 1976 from horror veterans Hammer Films and the first to be released solely through MySpace. Complete with gore and vampires, it will be unlike a routine trip to the movies as fans will be encouraged to interact. “We want to weave users into the story,” Katz said, such as helping shape aspects of the plot or appearing in episodes.

Transforming members into story tellers is something that MySpace’s slightly more female-skewed competitor, Bebo, has already been busy doing for some time. Bebo President Joanna Shields pointed out here that the site’s 42 million plus members worldwide are more sophisticated today about what they want to watch.

The number one social media site in Britain and New Zealand that has a core audience of 16-24 year-olds, Bebo has pioneered the new wave of online interactive web TV shows. Its wildly successful KateModern series attracts 300,000 views for each of the show’s weekly five episodes, while its new interactive online soap Sophia’s Diary has notched up 50 million views since it launched.

Even more innovative from a business point of view is Bebo’s achievement in weaving advertising into its shows, Shields said. Bebo’s hugely successful entertainment formats and its fast-growing worldwide users were instrumental in AOL’s decision to spend 850 million US dollars to acquire it last month. User-generated content (UGC) by members though has trailed off significantly, Shields said.

With Bebo having demonstrated that advertising can make money in the social network space, and vice-versa, Shield appealed to the media industry to come and “follow audiences online”.