MySpace to flog Fox TV shows

So MySpace is becoming the retail arm of Fox TV?

The report on CNET here notes that:

"Fox, a division of News Corp., announced Monday that digital versions of TV shows such as "24" and "Prison Break," along with feature films, including "X-Men: The Last Stand," will eventually be available for download at Fox sites. Movies will go for $19.99, while TV episodes will cost $1.99."

Apparently its all to stop Apple ruling the Video world as well as music.

But is this what a Social Networking Site actually does? Can you actually flog mass media to people busy doing all that social networking stuff? Apparently MySpacers like to space out on videos, according to a new report by Park Associates here

To quote:

"People who visit a social networking site at least weekly are overall six times more likely to download long-form videos and 1.5 times more likely to view streaming Internet videos than are those who do not use these Websites."

Absolutely...but it isn't mass media stuff they are all downloading, its that long tail stuff - and its all FREE. Hey, if I want to pay I go to Apple - or Amazon.

And there are loads of other dedicated video rental websites springing up, with lots of vid-buff help - so why go through a generic social network site? Wouldn't this just be the worst of both worlds?

This seems to me to be a mass market play to make it easy and comfortable for newbies to get online and get some good old mass media video in a comfortable environment - at a price, of course. Why record all that on the TiVo when you can Buy Now for $1.99. Great....but what becomes of the MySpace role as a Social Network then - will people needing that networking fix just go somewhere else?

News International are certainly not dummies, but I wonder if the desire to hit the ROI promises of the orginal Buy MySpace business case is not pushing MySpace in some uncomfortable directions?