MSN Courts Video Content Owners

MSN Video has signed a nonexclusive content distribution agreement with News Corporation and NBC Universal, and has agreed to add tools that will help identify and filter copyrighted material posted by users on its Soapbox video-posting service. Both moves could help MSN Video compete with YouTube, which was the fastest-growing site on the Web in 2006, but which faces complaints from content owners about unauthorized postings of copyrighted material.

Up Against YouTube

MSN Video launched in 2003 and offers streaming video from partners such as MSNBC and Fox Sports. (A similar subscription-based service for downloading video, MSN Video Downloads, launched in mid-2005 and was cancelled in Dec. 2006.) However, MSN Video has suffered serious usability problems-for instance, as of mid-March 2007, it did not support the current version of Microsoft’s Web browser (Internet Explorer 7) or Windows OS (Vista), and it failed to recognize the “supported” versions of the Firefox browser and its Flash plug-in correctly. Moreover, MSN Video was late to the game with a way for users to post their own videos: its Soapbox service didn’t begin beta testing until Sept. 2006.