MySpaceTV lands global TV distribution deal

By Kenneth Li

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A company founded by Rupert Murdoch's daughter will help News Corp's MySpace distribute Web shows on television and DVDs outside the United States, as the world's largest social network seeks an audience away from the computer.

The move is a play to make shows such as MySpaceTV's "Quarterlife" or "Roommates" available outside of the United States, or create localized versions of the shows, said Travis Katz, managing director of MySpace's international arm.

The partnership with ShineReveille, the distribution arm of Elisabeth Murdoch-founded Shine Group, is one of News Corp's most ambitious plays to underscore MySpace as a media platform, distinguishing itself from fast-moving rival Facebook.

"Partnering with ShineReveille empowers us to export MySpaceTV content to local TV networks globally -- something we've never been able to in the past," Katz said in a phone interview.

Just last week, MySpace announced a deal with three big music companies to start an online music service, seen as a rival to Apple Inc's popular digital entertainment service iTunes.

Its latest deal comes amid a broad rethinking of the way shows make it onto TV. A prolonged U.S. writers strike forced big media companies to reconsider the time-honored tradition of paying for expensive pilots only to reject many of them.

General Electric Co's NBC Universal has gone as far as to say it aims largely to avoid the development of pilots.

MySpace's deal also raises questions on the potential for Web-developed shows on TV. When "Quarterlife," a show about young adults that originally aired on MySpace, made it to NBC television, the show's ratings tanked. The TV version combined more than thirty short videos into six hour-long episodes.