The deal will provide Vidzone, which has previously sold through ad network Unanimis and disparate country-specific sales outfits, with the support of a global ad platform in Adconion’s Joost video network, through which it can potentially reach around 16m users in Australia, Europe and New Zealand.

According to Vidzone Digital Media CEO Adrian Workman, it will kickstart “aggressive” promotion of its music video service in Q4, using email messaging and its existing user database to target inactive users. It will also look to to reach Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s (SCEE’s) over 20m console owners

“The idea is to make Vidzone a more prominent feature on PlayStation,” he said. “When we first launched, PlayStation was enormously supportive, and we featured in above-the-line advertising. We want to go into Q4 making sure there’s a key marketing message. We can push the boat out now knowing that Adconion will support on the revenue side at scale.”

The majority of Vidzone customers view the content through a TV in the living room with friends and partners, according to Workman. The music service claims to have had 4m downloads since its launch in 2009 and receive around 2m visits a months, with an average session time of 30 minutes twice a week.

Brands will be offered commercial sponsorship, pre-roll, leaderboard, playlist and artist video opportunities against Vidzone’s 40,000 plus on-demand music videos, concerts and exclusives, as well as 110 branded TV channels and playlists.

Workman said that while music streaming had become prevalent across mobile and PC devices, such a level of “control” still hadn’t reached larger screens.

“From what we can see, the consumer prefers to have control over what they listen to and view,” he said. “You don’t have to view linear TV anymore. You can watch films through your Skybox or LoveFilm app but this concept still hasn’t come to the fore in music video.”

Vidzone has an advantage over other music offerings in that it’s a “walled-garden” service, according to Workman. Others that operate in the wider digital sphere have to work harder to reach such a broad audience.

“By contrast, we have a direct relationship with our users in terms of below-the-line communication,” he said.

At the end of June, ad network Specific Media bought MySpace from News Corp for $35m, deploying Justin Timberlake to front content, with advertising handled by Specific Media (nma.co.uk 30 June 2011). Specific Media’s international MD Colin Petrie-Norris previously told new media age that the point of difference would be leveraging Specific Media “well-evolved engine” (with data and behavioural targeting capabilities) to “bring content to people based on their interests and give them stuff they care about”.

Workman commented, “If you’re operating a service like MySpace, you’re effectively having to market to billions of customers and that’s a problem in its own right, unless you’ve got a huge amount to play with.”