MySpace streams online video to smart phones

BY PETER GILL: MySpace on Tuesday is launching a mobile video streaming service that lets members of the global social-networking website watch favoured snippets on the move.

News Corp-owned MySpace teamed with video coding speciality firm RipCode to create a way to let people use Internet-linked "smart phones" to watch videos they uploaded to MySpace profiles or mark as "favourites" at the website.

"Video is a natural next step for us in mobile," said Mobile for MySpace vice president John 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."

MySpace says its new video streaming service works with most popular handset models but has yet to be adapted to Apple's hot-selling iPhones.

Apple uses "progressive downloads" of video in iPhones, meaning digitised data must be downloaded to handsets before viewing can commence.

The free service, which is in a beta test phase, uses RipeCode technology to stream video in real time to individual mobile devices on-demand instead of calling on people to download files for storage in handset libraries.

"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 RipeCode chief executive Brendon Mills.