• by Shankar Gupta , February 9, 2006

Signaling an intent to develop its entertainment properties, MSN Wednesday announced the promotion of two managers from its MSN Video unit. Rob Bennett was elevated to general manager, entertainment and video services from his previous position as project unit manager at MSN Video, TV and Movies; and Joe Michaels, formerly the senior business development manager at MSN Video, was named director of business development, entertainment and video services.

Michaels said he hopes to grow MSN's content library across all of its properties--MSN Video, MSN TV, MSN Movies, MSN Spaces, and MSN Messenger. "We are in the market for great entertainment content," he said. "Our users love watching video, our users love playing games, and we are investing resources and people in building great entertainment experiences online."

Michaels said that MSN was working with both big- and small-name content producers in the Los Angeles area, and is developing content it hopes will be advertiser-friendly. "Product placement is just one aspect of it: It's more than just putting a can of soda in the frame--there's also working the advertiser into the content very organically," he said. "Our advertisers are showing increasing interest in getting creative in how they fit into the content, and our content providers are willing to learn."