According to the “New York Times,” MySpace is set to rename and relaunch its Flash-based video-sharing service as a stand-alone Web site, MySpaceTV.com. This will be accessible to everyone including people who do not have MySpace accounts. MySpace TV will be less centered on user-generated content — unlike YouTube — and will focus more on the material it has acquired from Sony and other major companies.The creation of MySpace TV was not an unexpected move and was speculated on as far back as a year ago. YouTube has also recently begun to compete with MySpace by developing social-networking features.

MySpace TV will launch on Thursday and with YouTube’s U.S. viewers only slightly outnumbering those of MySpace’s current video pseudo-site, it looks like it will be a strong competitor.

MySpace, Chasing YouTube, Upgrades Its Offerings [via TechCrunch]