Chernin: News Corp. Won’t “Screw Up” MySpace

LAS VEGAS, January 10: Speaking at Citigroup’s annual media,
entertainment and telecommunications conference in Las Vegas, Peter Chernin,
the president and COO of News Corporation, said that the company is working
hard not to “Fox-ify” or “screw up” the popular social networking site MySpace.

According to CNNMoney.com, Chernin is quoted as saying of
News Corp.’s MySpace strategy: "Our job is to continue to do a couple of
things. One, is to not screw it up, not make it restrictive or look to Fox-ify
it. Beyond that you have to continue to give users new tools. You don't shove
it down their throat but you do offer them new ones and see what they
like."

News Corp. acquired the site for $580 million and not too
long after inked a $900-million deal making Google the exclusive search and
keyword-targeted advertising sales provider for MySpace and a range of other
Fox Interactive Media-owned sites.

Chernin went on to say that online video has the potential
to be the biggest story for media companies this year. However, he noted that
it won’t be user-generated content that will be pulling in strong ad revenues.
"Many big advertisers are not advertising on YouTube yet. One, they're not
sure about the content and there is no scarcity value. If you put an ad on a
minute-long clip of someone falling off a skateboard, people can find that
somewhere else. With user-generated videos there is little way to monetize the
content.”