MySpace Ad Revenue rising - Is it Too Late?

Merrill Lynch is predicting MySpace ad revenue to reach $271 million this year, up from $90 million last year. Mostly due to content deals rather than traditional ads. I wonder if these content providers know what they're getting into?

MySpace data suggests that, while pageviews are up, overall user adoption is down. In addition, the MySpace user demographic has been steadily aging for some time. The content providers may not be reaching the audience they intend to. It seems that it's taken quite a while to get these deals done and it will be interesting to see if MySpace or the content providers pay a price for it - in waning interest or site abandonment when the next MySpace competitor takes hold. Perhaps this is something that the folks at YouTube should think about while figuring out how to monetize on the popular video site.