Report: MySpace to push deeper into entertainment
News Corp. has plans to turn MySpace into an entertainment portal. How much more entertainment can the site add?
The waning prospects of MySpace, once the dominate social network, are pushing parent company News Corp. to make some startling moves.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., said he plans to reshape MySpace into an "entertainment portal."
The Journal reported that MySpace will enable the site's users, the number of which is quickly shrinking, to access entertainment and related information. Murdoch, however, didn't offer the paper any details about what this new entertainment focus would include.
The statements, made at the Allen & Company Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, come as Facebook continues to outpace MySpace in almost every relevant metric. The big question is how much would a facelift like the one proposed by Murdoch help the site?
First, MySpace is already heavily geared towards entertainment. News Corp. helped create MySpace Music in a joint venture with the four largest record labels. The service is not quite a year old and has struggled to find its footing, but MySpace is well stocked with music.
Los Angeles-based MySpace has long provided users with a means to upload their own video clips, so user-generated video is covered. When it comes to offering movies and TV shows, MySpace could conceivably do more with Hulu, the successful video portal that News Corp. started with NBC Universal.
It's hard to imagine something like that would move the needle much. Sources in the music, television, and movie sectors said they were unaware of any new deals regarding MySpace.
Could Murdoch be doing a little Sun Valley spin?