News Corp is starting to leverage MySpace for promotion of its TV programming - the first 7 minutes of The Simpsons' season opener have been made available as a preview on the site today ahead of its TV airing on Sunday evening. The clip, sponsored by Burger King, is being shown at myspace.com/thesimpsons. Strangely, they've chosen to encode it in Windows Media Format - it would have made more sense to use MySpace Video, allowing the clips to travel virally through the site and getting much more exposure. But it seems that Fox are too attached to the locked-down Windows Media Format to consider that possibility - even with a preview clip.
Many have argued that the upcoming MySpace music store isn't even close to being an iTunes competitor, since the plan is to sell unDRM'd music from unsigned bands. Of course, that ignores the fact that MySpace intends to add DRM'd music from the major labels further down the line. And with free video clips becoming more common on the site, it doesn't take a leap of faith to imagine a MySpace video store competitive with Google Video, Guba, AOL Video, iTunes and others. This sounds like wild speculation, but it's really the logical next step. Watch this space.
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The Simpsons on MySpace