• Ad Age, Wednesday, March 7, 2007 11 AM

Microsoft has long pegged "branded entertainment" as a primary focus for growing MSN, its perennially beleaguered Web portal. After various efforts were met with modest success, video shows became MSN's new strategy. For the cost of a low-budget 22-minute TV pilot, MSN has teamed up with the producer Reveille to create 10 shows. Some, like "Chef to the Rescue" and "The Big Debate," have been greenlighted right away; others are still pending.

MSN believes in the Web portal idea: Direct your big audience to content that sticks. Marketers like Kraft, in the case of "Chef," have jumped on board and now play a part in creating show concepts.

Other Web giants have largely stayed away from producing broadband content. Yahoo dabbled for a while, but after it flopped, largely abandoned the idea, shifting its focus to communications, Web services and content aggregation. Google never showed an interest in creating online content, while AOL's strategy, like Yahoo's, has been to aggregate content through deals with media partners like Warner Bros.

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