MySpace's mobile streaming video play

MySpace announced it is entering the mobile streaming video market, streaming user-generated videos and some professional video directly to video-enabled phones. MySpace, which claims 10 million unique users per month visit its mobile offering, will be the first social network to incorporate the feature.

"Video is a natural next step for us in mobile," said John Faith, vice president of mobile for MySpace, in a prepared statement. "MySpace will continue to grow our video library as we increase delivery channels in order to keep pace with our users' accelerating desire for video consumption."

News Corp. obviously eyes the mobile market as one primed for growth and the foray into the nascent space by MySpace could be a precursor to more mobile offerings across its many media holdings.

MySpace will not stream ads with the videos to begin with, as it struggles -- like so many other sites incorporating video (YouTube) -- to monetize and advertise around user-generated content. This is the latest in several recent plays by MySpace to use its video assets to the fullest, including placing ads over pirated content through a deal with MTV and a partnership with fellow News Corp. venture Hulu.

Ripcode, a video transcoding company out of Dallas, Texas, will use its Real-Time Stream Transcoding application to deliver the videos for MySpace. Specific phone types the service will support were not named, but MySpace will use RT-SP streaming, ruling out availability on iPhones. 

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