• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 13, 2006

MSN has arranged to stream portions of the New Orleans Jazz and Music Festival, which spans two weekends this spring and features music acts including Fats Domino, Dave Matthews Band, and Bob Dylan.

MSN intends to stream the key performances live, and also make them available for download on-demand afterwards, said Rob Bennett, general manager for Entertainment and Video Services at MSN. The festival will take place April 28-30 and May 5-7.

Unlike AOL's Webcast of Live 8 last July--which included streams of every act in every location, and let users toggle between them--MSN intends to limit coverage to the anchor performances. "The festival is so vast--it really takes over the entire city," Bennett said. "It would be hard for anyone to be able to show everything that's happening."

Bennett said MSN had no sponsorship deals to announce at present, but that situation could change as more marketers became aware of the event. When MSN Video streamed the 13th annual Bob Marley festival "Jam Rock" in February, the company initially planned to display run-of-site ads, but the Jamaica Tourist Board contacted MSN and became a sponsor after hearing about the deal through the media.