Users of online video sites like YouTube (GOOG) typically won't wait for ads to play -- they'll just click to another site in frustration. So are people watching streaming video on a cell phone enough of a captive audience to sit through a pre-roll?
We doubt it. But MySpace (NWS) is keeping its fingers crossed, and is rolling out a new service to send video to mobile phones, packaging the content with ads.
Reuters: On Wednesday, News Corp's online social network will make video clips from its members' pages available for viewing on mobile devices including the BlackBerry Bold, Palm Centro, Motorola Q9, LG Voyager, Nokia N95 and Samsung Instinct.
Members will be able to look at video on their own homepages as well as friends' pages. They also will be able to view professionally produced video from TMZ, the celebrity news and gossip website owned by Time Warner Inc; the National Hockey League; National Geographic magazine; satirical newspaper The Onion and others.
The free service will be supported by advertising.
Earlier this week, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe named mobile (along with music and overseas users) as one of the three areas where he expects his company to find growth. Nor a bad idea to jump in the game, but the mobile ad business remains so tiny MySpace won't see significant revenue from its mobile video ads anytime soon. If ever.
See Also:
MySpace CEO: Acquisition Targets Dirt Cheap And Getting Cheaper
Michael Wolff: MySpace And Its Braindead Users Are Going To Zero
DeWolfe: Recession Hammering MySpace's Growth
YouTube's Mobile Ad Test Confirms Infant State Of Mobile Advertising Business
