Print this article | E-mail this article | Comment on this article

MTV to Take On MySpace?

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

March 2, 2006, 11:39 AM

MTV parent Viacom said the company is looking to enter the social networking market this year to compete with sites such as News Corp.-owned MySpace. Viacom CEO Tom Freston said he did not think the market was saturated, and felt there was plenty of room to stake a claim.

Viacom has not decided whether it would create its own site, or enter the market through an acquisition of a preexisting network. The company has held talks with several social networking sites already, according to reports.

However, Viacom never bid on MySpace, saying its revenues did not justify the price tag. News Corp. paid $580 million for the site in July of last year.

In any case, Viacom would have an advantage that many other companies do not: MTV's network of cable channels is very popular among the 18-25 year-old demographic, the age group that sites like MySpace are targeted toward.

However, MySpace holds a commanding lead over the rest of the social networking industry, with some 25 million plus visitors monthly. Its nearest competitors normally see a fifth of that traffic. Thus, it would be no easy task to take on the social networking giant.

News of Viacom's plans were first reported by Reuters News Service late Wednesday.

Add a Comment (8 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

By eastmpman

edited Mar 3, 2006 - 12:24 PM

Doesn't Myspace generate more traffic than Google does currently?
Between Myspace, Facebook, and some of the past social networking sites like Friendster, Xanga, and others mentioned in this thread... plus the DOZENS of online dating sites, where does Viacom's CEO honestly feel theres room in this "unsaturated" market for their spin on things?

Truly, I could care less either way, BUT, I do feel they're going to be fighting a losing battle with this one. Reminds me of the way that everyone was POSITIVE that the online music sale market was absolutely open for additional services, yet iTunes still holds over 80% of the users, doesn't look to be losing users anytime soon, and Napster's CEO is now pointing fingers blaming Microsoft for their market presence failure.

Point is, when people find things they like, and invest time into learning a system (especially some of these "emo" kids with their crazy customized profiles), they tend to stick with it.

Good luck Tom.

Score: 0

By Scary Guy

posted Mar 2, 2006 - 5:49 PM

MTV killed off MTVX

The only cool MTV these days from what I've seen is in Germany.

MTV can die off and I wouldn't shead a tear. I think they really started to suck in the early to mid 90's if I remember right.

Score: 0

By smith288

posted Mar 2, 2006 - 2:38 PM

There is Tagworld, MyYearbook, Myspace, Yahoo 360 yada yada yada...

its saturated.

Score: 0

By btn

posted Mar 2, 2006 - 8:12 PM

I speculate that Viacom's CEO was referring to the large market of investors who value social networking. ;-)

Score: 0

By forgie

posted Mar 2, 2006 - 1:01 PM

lets see if MTV can accomplish a product that doesn't give you an error screen every 3 clicks. Myspace is run by monkeys.

Score: 0

By writingyourrequiem

posted Mar 2, 2006 - 1:20 PM

I actually don't get many problems with myspace, its mostly other aplications that don't mix well. But yes, there are problems, just like every other website. But for the proportion of features to problems, its A.O.K.

Score: 0

By writingyourrequiem

posted Mar 2, 2006 - 12:03 PM

Yeah...many people who use myspace, not all, but many, are these so called "Emo" kids. There is a small percentage (bear in mind, this is just speculation of my own school) of kids who use myspace and also listen to Hip Hop or Pop, which is primarily all they play on MTV2. And MTV... there is no music. I, personally, will not use the MTV social experiment, not for moral reasons, but because everyone I know has Myspace. To me, personally, the market IS saturated.

Score: 0

By allira jade

edited Mar 5, 2006 - 11:37 PM

i must admit i was weary about joining myspace at first and yes there are alot of emo kids who like to take photos of themselves in the mirror but thats always good for a laugh,but its so simple to use and create an intresting profile thats no cost to you - it suprises me how many people are on there not just the random millions (everyday there seems to be around about 100000 new members)but friends of friends or people you see around but have never talked to, and it is a great place for bands for them to place their demos, send out info about new tours,pictures,organise street teams,connect with fans and meet new ones, ive been waiting for recordcompanies and multinational companies try to sell it out for a while now but i sort of dont want to see that happen in away its sort of a vital tool for indie musicians and a way to network with professionals and im not looking forward to the new influx of ads were going to be bombarded with or finding out that new"friend" didnt add me for my music taste but is paid to market me
but $580million wow -go tom

Score: 0

Dec 5 - 1:45 AM ET Shazam: eight million songs of the eternal Now

Dec 4 - 7:30 PM ET Comcast to offer bandwidth consumption monitor

Dec 4 - 5:37 PM ET Counterfeiters sing the 'Blue' as Microsoft lawyers up

Dec 4 - 4:40 PM ET Opera 10 alpha shows off new Presto rendering engine

Dec 4 - 2:29 PM ET Apple: Psystar clone-maker is working with unnamed collaborators

Dec 4 - 2:21 PM ET Windows Live rollout sketchy, team apologizes

Dec 4 - 2:20 PM ET Stinging from a revenue shortfall, Adobe to shed workers

Dec 4 - 11:47 AM ET The storm hits AT&T, with a five-digit headcount reduction

Dec 4 - 11:42 AM ET TV sports adopts Web coverage, plays with iPhones

Dec 4 - 11:24 AM ET Microsoft seeks 'community' help to make IE8 Standards Mode work out