MySpace Cuts Distribution Deal for Its Video Content

MySpace has signed with a British production firm for international distribution of video content it develops, in a sign that News Corp's social network aims to be a breeding ground for small-screen programming. Indeed, in revealing the deal with the Shine Group—whose CEO is News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch’s daughter—MySpace declared itself “Hollywood’s digital playground,” the New York Times reports.

Social networking is seen as an alternative TV pilot process, in which shoestring production values meet click-happy fan bases—and can signal the potential success of a program without expensive outlays by a network. Shine’s president is “excited to see how the shows on online platforms can transfer to television”—though the Times notes that the only show yet to rise up from the Internet promptly flopped. (More MySpace stories.)