MySpace Launches Mobile Phone Video Streaming Service

Teen oriented website, MySpace has launched a video streaming service for mobile phones - based on a platform provided by video infrastructure vendor, RipCode. Users will now be able to view videos theyÃ've uploaded or have marked as a favorite.

According to John Faith, vice president and general manager of Mobile for MySpace, the companyÃ's growing community of users is increasingly interested in portability and on-the-go access to content. "Video is a natural next step for us in mobile," says Faith. "MySpace will continue to grow our video library as we increase delivery channels in order to keep pace with our usersÃ' accelerating desire for video consumption."

Real time transcoding enables MySpace to easily support several different handsets even though they require different combinations of codecs, bit rates, and resolutions. Because MySpace is transcoding video on-demand, there is no longer need to store the entire MySpace video library in multiple mobile formats, thus saving significant hardware, energy and storage resources.

"As the volume of video grows and the number of mobile devices supporting video continues to expand, companies have to find alternative solutions to deliver content to their customers across multiple screens," said Brendon Mills, CEO of RipCode. "MySpaceÃ's decision to choose RipCodeÃ's innovative transcoding solution is proof that market leaders are embracing change in traditional transcoding methodologies and looking for smarter, more scalable solutions to manage mobile video growth."

According to Frost & Sullivan, streaming mobile video services constitute the bulk of current U.S. mobile video service offerings. The MySpace mobile video service will be rolled out in beta globally, with support for the most popular streaming-enabled mobile devices. MySpace will continue to rapidly add support for more streaming-enabled devices.

The MySpace Mobile site (m.myspace.com) receives approximately three billion worldwide page views per month from more than 10 million monthly unique users.

Posted to the site on 3rd December 2008