• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 8, 2004

Microsoft Wednesday unveiled its next generation of MSN Internet services, including the official launch of MSN Video, a service that is expected to greatly accelerate the adoption of a TV-like advertising marketplace on the Internet.

The service, which was dramatically influenced by key players on Madison Avenue, especially Starcom MediaVest Group's so-called "broadband embrace" that committed "upfront" advertising budgets toward the development of broadband video applications, is part of a new portfolio of free and premium Web services that accelerate Microsoft's Internet strategy from dial-up to broadband.

The service, which was one of the hot news developments coming out of Wednesday's session of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will enable marketers to run TV-like ads via a new, free streaming-video service, a new MSN home page that includes ad formats with expandable ad space, as well as a so-called "Universal Ad Package" of standardized ads.

Joanne Bradford, vice president and chief media revenue officer of MSN, said the service already has seen a "50 percent" growth in its advertising sales over the past year and that MSN expects the new broadband offerings to establish it as "a top media property across all media."

While Wednesday's announcement was the services official announcement, several ad agencies and marketers have already been involved in testing and developing the service, as reported first by MediaDailyNews. MSN said some, like Revlon, have already purchased schedules of 15-second video spots utilizing a model similar to their TV advertising buys. The Revlon buys were handled by Deutsch.