CW’s Trying Everything: Tie-Up With MSN And MySpace

New broadcast network the CW–formed by merger of WB and UPN–is trying hard: it has tied up with MSN to premiere episodes from three of its prime-time series a full week before TV debut. Premiere episodes of “Veronica Mars,” “Everybody Hates Chris” and new drama series “Runaway” will be available for free and without commercials on MSN.com a full week before their broadcast debuts.
Concurrently, it has also tied up with MySpace to host an interactive community hub for the network, this becoming the first broadcast net to create its own MySpace profile page. CW is also mounting a battle of the bands via its MySpace page starting Sept. 11. Winner get the chance to appear on the net’s “Supernatural.” Deal was a cash transaction, though no other the financial terms were disclosed.
Interestingly, this is before MyNetworkTV, Fox’s response to CW, has any kind of deal with Fox-owned MySpace.