MySpace TV: A Show Without An Audience?

News Corp’s (NYSE: NWS) will create a series of TV shows around its MySpace social network website. In a sign that nepotism is not dead, a company owned by News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Elisabeth, will handle the syndication.

But, having it in the family may be OK, because it is difficult to see how the project will make any money. According to Reuters "The move is a play to make shows such as MySpaceTV’s "Quarterlife" or "Roommates" available outside of the United States." The shows were tested in the US and no one watched them.

Media companies will keep trying to move social networking to other platforms and they will keep trying to sell advertising onto the sites. None of it is likely to work. Social networks are among the most personal of internet experiences. People go to these sites to tell something about themselves and interact with friends who have common interests. They are not likely to be looking at advertising in the process and cannot be organized into neat little groups of people who trade stocks or go to baseball games.

There is not such thing as a social network on TV because the screen has no personality of its own.

Douglas A. McIntyre