Microsoft has announced that it has made deals with Sony BMG and MTV to add their content to its free MSN video service.
Currently the service has offerings from National Geographic and ITN but will now add shows such as “Pimp My Ride” and music videos.
The deal with Sony BMG will put exclusive videos, backstage footage, interviews, and tour info on MSN Video.
“The music industry is facing tough challenges and it is all now about becoming a music entertainment company rather than just a record company”, said Ulrich Jarkel, senior vice president, Digital and Business Development Sony BMG.
“The whole game has changed. We now have over 150 ways to access Justin Timberlake content for example.”
MTV has made similar deals in the recent past, giving users access to South Park, Pimp My Ride, Punk’d, Cribs and Soapbox.
“This is one of our most important partnerships”, said Gideon Bierer, senior vice president, Digital Media, MT, “we will be adding other MTV network brands in the future from channels such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central”.
The service is available in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden and the US. It will launch in Belgium, Denmark and Norway later this year.
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Sony BMG has announced that it had signed a deal with Thumplay that will add another 7000 pieces of content to the growing mobile media service.
Currently the service offers 80000 ringtones, games, music videos, and wallpapers among its other content. The new content will be from artists and will be in many of the before mentioned categories.
“This deal reinforces Thumbplay’s position as the leading U.S. provider of mobile content to consumers who are looking to discover and manage their personalized mobile entertainment experience,” CEOI Are Traasdahl said in a statement.
Thumbplay is distributed through sites such as Qloud, MSN Mobile, and AOL and there are about 2000 different devices compatible with the service.
The service already has deals with EMI, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, and Universal Music Group accounting for most of its 80000 pieces of content.
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NBCU first announced the venture back in October of 2007, and now Hulu is finally set to launch tomorrow. For those unfamiliar, the service is a join venture between NBCU and News Corp and will offer free ad-supported TV shows and motion pictures.
The site will offer thousands of free videos from Fox, NBC, and 50 other content providers. Hulu is also in talks with Lionsgate and Warner Bros. to add more content to the Hulu library with those partnerships expected to be announced soon. Notably however, the service has not reached deals yet with CBS or ABC, two major broadcasters.
Hulu went into beta testing in October of last year and has been described as a rival to the much larger YouTube video sharing site. Besides its TV content deals the site also has video licensing deals with the NBA and NHL and will have its content also appear on AOL, MSN, Comcast, MySpace and Yahoo.
