Is content king of social networks?

I have just finished Hitwise's "The Impact of Social Networking in the UK", and as I thought it is well worth a read (although it didn't actually appear in my inbox until lunchtime today).

Whilst I would agree with most of the report's predictions for 2008, especially the growth in the role of social networks for marketing and the increase in specialist social networks, the report didn't particularly address the issue of content. By which I mean the quality content of the music, film and television studios, rather than the strange things that pass for humour amongst the user-generating masses. The general social network that successfully ties up the rights for their users to share music and video seems likely to take the spoils, and a successful new entrant could quickly usurp the market leaders.

The music rights secured by Imeem are likely to have been a major contributory factor in the social network's massive growth over the last year, and that these rights are only for the US helps explains the network's missing from the top 25 UK social networks. Whilst the growth seems to have slowed of late (at least according to alexa and google trends), music rights are not likely to be as enticing as video rights. People want to listen to music on numerous different platforms, whereas television programmes are usually only watched the once.

Whilst I have tired of Facebook, I could be persuaded to return on a more regular basis if I got to do the social stuff whilst watching quality TV programmes.