MSN To Fuse Entertainment Channels

MSN plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to integrate the portal's various channels, especially the entertainment properties, but--contrary to rumors circulated last week--is not re-branding as "MSN Media Network," a company executive said Friday.

MSN last fall quietly appointed John Nicol as general manager, but news of the move wasn't widely reported last week, when rumors that MSN intended to rename itself surfaced on the blogosphere.

Friday, MSN Director of Global Sales and Marketing Adam Sohn denied that the company had changed the name of its portal. "This is sort of a strange news pop," he said. "Some random blogger in Europe saw an e-mail where John referred to the MSN Media Network as the effort that MSN is undertaking."

"We haven't renamed anything, but there's a renewed focus that's come with John," he said. "We're talking about investing hundreds of millions of dollars in content, business development deals, technology, and head count."

According to Sohn, "The MSN Media Network" is an internal term used for the project Nicol will be undertaking--connecting all of the portal's disparate channels into a more cohesive experience. "We think we've done okay there, but some other folks in the industry do a better job with us. We think it's a very important piece of driving engagement with users," he said. "At the same time, we want to make sure that it's not just better connectivity between channels. We're going to innovate in this space."

Sohn declined to elaborate, but said that MSN would investigate content both from premium providers, and user-generated content.

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