NBC President Bob Wright declared earlier this week that iVillage would become the centerpiece of the broadcaster's efforts online. That means NBC's digital future belongs to women. iVillage is a
community site that is popular with women between 30 and 50 years old--and unless NBC changes that, the media giant looks set to pigeonhole itself with a specific audience. However, if NBC wants to
make iVillage the focus of its online push, then the broadcaster would do well to make iVillage more MySpace-like, says Bambi Francisco of
MarketWatch. The women's community site costs NBC
Universal about as much as MySpace parent Intermix costs News Corp. ($600 versus $580 million--but other than that, there are few similarities, she says). For starters, MySpace has an enormous user
base of more than 100 million members. In August, the site had 49 million unique visitors and 27 billion page views, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. In the same month, iVillage had an audience of 7
million uniques and 102 million page views. MySpace is also all about each individual user. Every member has a page they can adorn as they like with their interests and music. iVillage has message
boards, which are far more limiting. It's also a place where news is delivered to you; the content is chosen by editors. Says Francisco: "The problem is that iVillage needs a significant makeover, if
it wants to modernize itself to adjust to today's meaning of community."
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