MySpace, as expected, is ramping up its video efforts, launching an independent website called MySpace TV on Thursday, according to the New York Times.

The site will reportedly focus on professional video, building on efforts like Prom Queen and the new Sony minisode network. Later on it will include video editing tools based on recently acquired Flektor’s technology. MySpace TV will be available in 15 countries and seven languages, one-upping YouTube’s recent localization efforts.

The effort is quite clearly an attempt to mount a viable competitor to YouTube. We had pointed out in the past that MySpace Vids seemed to be losing ground to YouTube. MySpace parent News Corp is one of the founders of a joint-venture video site supposed to launch this fall, the so-called “NewCo.” It’s telling that MySpace TV is not more closely integrated with that project.

The Times has some good quotes about MySpace’s now-awakened hunger to compete in the video space.

[MySpace CEO Chris] DeWolfe said he believed that “no one has really pointed out that MySpace has been focused on video and has quietly come within striking distance of YouTube.”

“When you go to MySpace video now, what you see is far less appealing to the eye than what you get from other video sites,” said Jeff Berman, a MySpace executive who took over the video effort in March.