Order young women around on MySpace TV

MySpace TV has launched an interactive three-minute video show, Roommates, for the huge social network on the Internet. It has 45 episodes in all. A fictional reality show of four young women, it has already created waves: A report.

CJ: Arindam Roy, 23 Oct 2007 Views:1031 Comments:1

THESE ARE former roommates, four young women, who can be ordered around, via web polls by the viewers. Millions of nerds in various parts of this planet would decide what they want these women to do.

Don’t be surprised. The social networking giant, MySpace, has decided to launch an interactive web series, ‘Roommates’, of three-minute duration.

Even before the actual beaming of the reality show on the Internet, MySpace TV has created a huge buzz. It began on October 22, at 4pm IST.

It deals with the fictional reality-show of eight young women, in twenties, all former college roommates. Four of them, Peyton, Violet, Heather and Sigourney, move to Los Angeles and get into a reality show, while the other four, who are working, stay connected with their friends with the help of blogs.

MySpace TV, in its answer to YouTube, has planned a 45-episode series of the three-minute duration each. The online social network group, MySpace, is a unit of News Corp. It has teamed up with Iron Sink Media for beaming ‘Roommates’.

The show's title sponsor is the 2008 Ford Focus.

The car company, which is the only advertiser that MySpace has announced, will present short bumper ads before the episodes. The advertising integration would be achieved by showing that one of the characters purchases the car. It’s a smart attempt at brand building with intelligent product placement.

MySpace TV General Manager, Jeff Berman informed that community interaction would make the web-based video episodes interesting. MySpace polls would allow viewers vote on "…whether Violet should break up with her boyfriend or quit her job or get in a fight with her roommate." People will participate in the plot, as the show progresses. It’s a unique attempt at content creation, he was confident.

This experiment of the MySpace TV, in all possibility, would mark a paradigm shift in the area of convergence. It would bring together online interactivity with a web video show, forging advertiser’s product integration with the plot and characters and get the viewers to decide the course of action.

(Link: http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=127204 )