MSN Video tweaks ad delivery

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 27 September 2007 08:36

Your IT - Home IT

A update to Microsoft's YouTube rival MSN Video delivers ads on the basis of the time spend watching clips rather than the number of clips viewed.

While that must be regarded as an improvement - sitting through a pre-roll ad only to find the content you requested is not offered to users in your geography or that it isn't as interesting as you'd expected - displaying ads "no more than once every three minutes" is hardly viewer-friendly. After all, people get annoyed by TV ads appearing every 10-15 minutes.

Yes, we know content has to be paid for, and that online videos are generally shorter than TV shows, but still...

Other changes include the option of sharing playlists with friends, the integration of professional and user-created content, and the ability to search for videos while a clip is playing.

"By increasing the discoverability of our deep catalog, making it easier to share videos with friends, and improving the advertising model, we are continuing in our mission to make video an integral part of the MSN experience," said Rob Bennett, general manager, entertainment, video and sports at MSN.

The new version has gone live in the US, and is in beta in selected countries including the UK.

Microsoft claims MSN Video attracts an audience of over 12 million unique users per month.