For a while now, John has been looking askance at the PR crap coming out of Microsoft about advertising, generally planted as “tech” news. I guess this is what they’ve been leading up to.
Microsoft and Viacom have formed an advertising and content partnership to provide about $500 million in services to each other over five years.
Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, will license television shows and movies from Viacom for use on its MSN Web site and sell advertising for Viacom’s U.S. sites…
Under the deal, programming from Viacom’s MTV, Comedy Central and BET cable networks as well as the Paramount studio will be distributed on MSN and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video-game system.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, will have the exclusive right to seek buyers for unsold display advertising space on Viacom’s U.S. Web sites. The companies will share ad revenue. Microsoft also agreed to buy ads on Viacom’s cable-TV networks and its online sites for five years.
I feel like I’m watching a commercial for erectile dysfunction – from two creepy pharmaceutical companies who’ve decided to merge their efforts.
More content worth ignoring
This business arrangement with Microsoft, might explain Viacom’s need to have any appearance of its properties removed from Youtube. Though Youtube probably increased the demand for most of it, in turn. Don’t count on MSN making it as easy to find clips of The Daily Show, as Youtube did. All I ever wanted to see was the Lewis Black rants. He’s a slightly more energized version of Dvorak.
What is MSN?
Microsoft Sexual Network — a prOn interwebitube search portal that largely leads to sites that can’t say enough about how wonderful Bill Gates is.
Ha! Love the photo… brilliant. Blue Screen of Death.
It looks to me that they’re agreeing to cripple each other’s business!
The whole coffee table computer would out sell the ipod if it had a pedestrian genitalia plug in. [speak no evil]
#2 –
If you weren’t hilarious with the users schtick..you’d really be annoying.. rofl !!
Looks like this couple is extremely happy that they didn’t have to pay for this white elephant that they find mildly entertaining. And they’re getting paid well to smile.
Ya, what is an MSM ???