Fox Goes Vertical

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The Times has an intriguing story today by Chris Gaither about News Corp. planning to distribute movies from the studio it owns (20th Century Fox) through Web sites it owns (Direct2Drive.com and, later, MySpace.com). Sound familiar? You might recall the conglomerate’s original plans for movies online, announced five years ago: a joint venture with Disney to offer videos on demand exclusively through Movies.com. The site would have carried only films made by Fox, Disney and their affiliates, and would have gotten new releases before cable video-on-demand services. The other major studios’ joint venture, Movielink, would have been shut out. News Corp. abandoned the effort, however, after the Justice Department launched an antitrust probe (which also examined, and cleared, Movielink). Disney finally cut a deal with Movielink in 2003, but Fox held out until last December. Obviously, News Corp. is still eager to cut out the middleman -- if not exclusively, than at least as one option. After all, what’s the point in being the world’s most powerful distribution company if you can’t deliver your own content? The $770 million MySpace acquisition makes more sense now, doesn’t it? Because MySpace isn’t a content play, really -- not like Viacom’s acquisitions -- but rather an online approximation of buying a group of local broadcast stations or a satellite TV company. The main difference is that it’s harder for News Corp. to push Fox content at people through MySpace than through a Fox TV station. But then, MySpace has a much larger audience on any given day than KTTV....