MySpace, MTV try to cash in on Internet video

NEW YORK: MySpace said on Monday it and online advertising technology company Auditude are working with Viacom Inc's MTV Networks to make money from video clips that its users put online.

When people who use MySpace, the online social network owned by News Corp, post video clips online, Auditude's technology will let MTV run online ads beside them.

The arrangement lets MTV make money from video clips of shows that it owns the rights to, such as "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," regardless of whether the people who upload the videos have permission to put them on the Internet.

"There is a very strong, aggressive trend to user-syndicated or user-curated content," said Jeff Berman, MySpace's president of sales and marketing. "Rather than fighting that aggressive trend, you'd rather go with it."

Berman declined to say how much money MySpace, MTV and Auditude could make from the arrangement, but described the opportunity as "significant."

The arrangement, which MySpace also is discussing with Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros, also gives the company "an enormous amount of data about how the audience is interacting with and virally promoting your content."

It is an alternative to the usual situation in which people post the clips online, only to have the videos' owners complain that it was without their permission. MySpace and Google Inc, which ownsYouTube, typically remove content once it shows up on their sites and copyright owners complain.