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Today’s big announcement from Bebo is Open Media, a new platform that gives Bebo users the ability to include premium music and video content in their profiles. On the other side of the equation are media companies which are able to use their own branded video players without being charged for access to the Open Media platform. This means that partners can carry their own advertising and retain all the ad revenue for themselves. Bebo has also had a redesign, as you can see from the screenshot below.

In practice, this means that users will now have Personal Video Profile, where they will be able to store their favorite videos.

Let’s hear that in marketingese (TM): Open Media offers users access to a lineup of high quality programs from professional broadcasters, independent producers and other rights owners, enhancing Bebo’s already-rich archive of user-generated content. Greg Clayman, Executive Vice President of Digital Distribution for MTV Networks says: “Bebo’s new Open Media platform allows us to distribute our content and our marketing partners’ messages in an environment where consumers can quickly and easily share it with others and forge even deeper communities around the programming they love.”

There’s an “intelligent content discovery mechanism” there, too, which will match users who have similar taste in music and videos. Users will also be able to receive online and mobile alerts when new content appears on the media channels they chose.

Bebo’s Open Media partners currently include:

BBC
BSkyB
CBS
Channel 4
Crackle
Endemol
ESPN
FabChannel
ITN
JibJab
Kontraband
Last.fm
Ministry of Sound
MTV Networks
Music Nation
Next New Networks
Premium TV
SumoTV
Turner Broadcasting Systems
Ustream
VBS
Yahoo!

Some more screenshots below:

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