MySpace Mobile Launches Streaming Video in Beta Globally

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

MySpace Sets New Standard for Delivering Quality Video Leveraging RipCode’s On-Demand Video Transcoding Solution

LOS ANGELES — MySpace (NYSE: NWS,NWS.A; ASX: NWS,NWSLV), the world’s premier social network, and RipCode, an innovator of Internet and mobile video infrastructure solutions, announced today that MySpace Mobile users across the globe will now be able to enjoy MySpace video content from their video enabled mobile devices. The first social portal to launch video streaming for mobile, MySpace’s beta mobile video initiative is committed to ensuring the best user experience by providing the highest quality video for mobile viewing. Users will now be able to view videos they’ve uploaded or have marked as a favorite.

The MySpace Mobile site receives approximately three billion worldwide page views per month from more than 10 million monthly unique users. Combining the popularity of the MySpace mobile site with its vast online video library creates a compelling and dynamic mobile environment.

According to John Faith, vice president and general manager of Mobile for MySpace, the company’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 users’ accelerating desire for video consumption.”

In order to meet ever-increasing video demand, MySpace utilizes RipCode’s On-Demand Video Transcoding technology to optimize mobile video delivery and give users an improved mobile video experience. Real time transcoding enables MySpace to easily support several different handsets even though they require different combinations of codecs, bit rates, and resolutions. For MySpace Mobile users, 100 percent of their uploaded videos and most premium content, including branded channel such as TMZ, National Hockey League, National Geographic, The Onion, College Humor, etc., are now available on mobile devices. 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.

By leveraging RipCode’s unique On-Demand Video Transcoding technology, MySpace achieves a more efficient, effective and eco-friendly method for extending video to the MySpace mobile community. “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. “MySpace’s decision to choose RipCode’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.

Accessing and viewing video from mobile devices is a data intensive service. MySpace mobile users are advised to consult their mobile data plan to avoid excessive fees. MySpace mobile video quality, as with all mobile services, is dependent on individual device capabilities as well as network speed and connection.