We know that Rupert Murdock owns a lot of things besides U.S. Senators - particularly businesses that can be put together to deliver video direct to viewers. The companies involved in their latest initiative are Twentieth Century Fox (for the content), IGN Entertainment (for the technology), and MySpace (for the audience).

In what could be the first step toward creating a broader online video strategy, Twentieth Century Fox will start to sell movies including "X-Men: The Last Stand" and TV shows like "24" for download. Movies will sell for about $20 and television shows for $1.99. They will be playable on portable entertainment devices that employ Microsoft Corp.'s copy protection system.

The movies and shows will be delivered using the Direct2Drive system offered by IGN Entertainment, which News Corporation subsidiary Fox Interactive Media acquired in October 2005 for $650 million.

"It's an infrastructure that they use to deliver gaming software that can be a horizontal platform," Gartner research director Allen Weiner, who was briefed on the announcement, said. "It doesn't matter what facade you put in front of it."

The downloads will be offered on Fox sites, including the net's fastest growing: MySpace. Sales will be limited to the United States. The move comes a week after MySpace selected Google Inc. as its search advertising partner in a deal that guarantees to pay Fox Interactive Media at least $900 million.

No news about how (or whether) Google might fit into this. After all, Google does own Google Video and just last week guaranteed at least $900 Million annually to supply search functionality to MySpace.

Too bad Time Warner cannot come up with such straightforward synergies (slapping myself for using that word) with its entertainment and AOL divisions.