Make Bones about it: Fox tv shows on MySpace is a shot in the YouTube wars

Earlier today, Fox said it would put streamed, ad-supported episodes of several of its shows on NewsCorp.-owned MySpace.

They're already up. 

The expansion of the Fox on Demand Streaming Initiative is branded as Fox Full Throttle. It includes previously aired episodes of "Bones," "Prison Break," "Standoff," "Vanished," "Talk Show With Spike Feresten," "'Til Death," "The Loop" and "Justice." (If you're rusty on some of these shows, you might want to check the information about them on our sister site, TV.com.

The service includes previously aired episodes of those shows, with more episodes added later this month as well as in November.  Sponsors include Toyota and Burger King.

This is more than just about "convergence." This is a shot across the bow of YouTube.

Reasons:

Since Fox- like most other television and movie content providers- is concerned that tv show and film fans are ripping off their content and putting it on You Tube without compensation, this is a chance to go after those same eyeballs with more richly encoded content- not the borderline pixel-y low grade Flash crap that passes for digital content on YT.

Second, by offering sponsorships, Fox is hoping not only to stem the loss of income from usurpers of this content, but monetizing this content in a way that is relatively painless to fans of these shows.

Mark my words. Within a period of months, this anti- YouTube counter-strategy will be adapted by most major and mid-tier digital content producers. Look for more enabling alliances out the wazoo.