• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 4, 2008

MSN has entered into an agreement with BermanBraun to co-create new entertainment content and integrated advertising and marketing programs, the companies confirmed Tuesday. Financial terms and other specifics of the deal are being kept under wraps.

"A partnership between BermanBraun and MSN makes perfect sense," said Rob Bennett, general manager, entertainment, video and sports for MSN. "Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman have been ingrained in the entertainment and media industries for years."

Lloyd Braun, former president of Yahoo Media Group and chairman of ABC Entertainment Television Group, and Gail Berman, former president of Paramount Pictures and Fox Entertainment, founded BermanBraun in March of last year as an independent production venture.

BermanBraun already boasts a multi-platform strategic alliance with NBC Universal Television, and more recently signed an agreement giving Pepsi a first look to support and sponsor original entertainment content that BermanBraun develops for online platforms.

Bypassing the traditional Hollywood system, digital studios are emerging fast and furious to fill the Web's growing demand for original video content.

Studio upstarts are even attracting top industry talent. Last August, for instance, Braun and Berman poached Mike Weetman, CFO of Yahoo's Network division, for the chief operating officer slot at BermanBraun.

That same month, Albie Hecht, former president of Nickelodeon's film studio and Spike TV, gathered a quartet of old accomplices to lead day-to-day operations at his digital production studio Worldwide Biggies. Chief among them, Scott Webb, former executive vice president at Nickelodeon and senior vice president, creative director at Oxygen Media, was tapped as chief creative officer of Worldwide Biggies.

Then, this past January, Will Ferrell's digital studio and video-sharing site FunnyOrDie.com got a new CEO in Nascar Vice President of Broadcasting and New Media Dick Glover.

Also, in February, DoubleClick lost its executive vice president of rich media, Chris Young, to the Digital Broadcasting Group, which was founded April 2007 by former HBO and VH1 writers and producers.

Serving as its chairman, Young is using his experience in online advertising to differentiate DBG from the growing horde of digital studios.