MySpace have announced the launch of a new premium content section for MySpace Video in a direct challenge to YouTube.

In the coming months, MySpace Video will launch branded channels with content from National Geographic, The New York Times, Reuters, The Daily Reel, Expert Village, Flow, IGN Entertainment, Octane TV, Kush TV, Ripe TV, VBS TV, and Young Hollywood.

Jeff Berman, General Manager of Video for MySpace said in a statement that the upcoming branded channel launch continues the growing momentum of MySpace Video, “empowering [MySpace] partners to customize their own video channels and use it as a hub to create niche experience for users”. He also went on to say that the announcement was a sign of things to come for MySpace Video.

The new branded channels are provided from within MySpace Video and will contain varying video content from each provider.

It’s an interesting move by the News Corp owned MySpace. Most observers have been waiting for the launch of a new Fox driven multi-network YouTube competitor which we wrote about in December. Whether the drive to use MySpace as the conduit to take on YouTube is the long awaited move from News Corp or we are yet to see a new stand alone YouTube competitor is still unkown. Certainly you’d question News Corps strategy if they were to build MySpace in to a YouTube competitor in the premium content marketplace only to later launch a new stand alone site that would compete against both.