Wave of New Web Launches Expands MTVN's Global Online Portfolio to More
Than 300 Sites by End of 2007
NEW YORK, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- MTV Networks (MTVN), a unit of Viacom
(NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), today announced a development slate of two dozen
targeted websites that will allow users to get closer to their favorite
music, entertainment, comedy and pop culture content. The move furthers
MTVN's commitment to its vertical entertainment strategy, through which the
company is launching hundreds of websites that provide rich entertainment
experiences and increase engagement among its core demographic audiences.
Bringing MTVN's global website portfolio to more than 300 sites by year's
end, this new slate reflects the company's 360-degree development process
across all platforms.
Debuting in Q3 and Q4 2007, the websites will hail from across MTVN's
stable of brands and include such titles as COMEDY CENTRAL's
TheDailyShow.com; MTV's Dances From Tha' 'Hood; Nickelodeon's iCarly.com;
VH1's VH1EyeCandy.com; GameTrailers.com's WikiCheats.com; Logo's Alien Boot
Camp and MTVN International's MTV European Music Awards & COMEDY CENTRAL
Germany's Comedy Blackboard, among others.
"Our targeted sites provide rich environments that connect like-minded
fans to one another, which ultimately strengthens their connections to our
brands, and enhances the value proposition for our advertisers," said Judy
McGrath, Chairman and CEO, MTVN. "Our strategy is to keep moving beyond our
core branded sites to invite fans to go as deep as they'd like with our
content, and the interests they're most passionate about."
Each of the MTVN brands is developing sites that either expand upon
popular TV franchises or are inspired by topics relevant to their
respective audiences. Empowering users to discover, curate, edit and upload
their favorite content, MTVN has already launched scores of targeted
websites across its brands, including COMEDY CENTRAL's Indecision2008.com;
MTV's YoMomma.tv and SuperSweet16.com; Logo's HappiestGayCouple.com; VH1's
BestWeekEver.tv and VSPOT Brazil; TurboNick in Germany and Latin America;
new MTV sites in Australia, Colombia, France, Finland, Norway & Romania;
and a multi-lingual site for MTV Switch to raise awareness about climate
change, among others. These new sites have helped increase traffic across
MTVN's global online portfolio from 76 million unique visitors in January
2007 to more than 91 million unique visitors in July 2007 (comScore Media
Metrix).
"We're taking an open approach with our content on the Web, allowing
our consumers to share, embed, influence and interact with everything they
see on-air and online," said Mika Salmi, President, Global Digital Media,
MTVN. "Our viewers become producers, consumers and participants because we
let them cast themselves online for our TV shows, upload content and
videos, or actually become their favorite cast members through our virtual
worlds."
Today's announcement signals the continued momentum of MTVN's vertical
entertainment strategy, following last month's announcement that the
company would commit more than $500 million over the next two years in the
development and distribution of its gaming business across its global
portfolio. MTVN is focused on developing three primary gaming experiences,
including online and mobile casual games that appeal to kids, young adults
and women; games media and editorial content for the hardcore gamers among
its young adult and adult male audiences; and console and handheld games
that serve kids, young adults and men.
NEW DEVELOPMENT SLATE:
The development slate of MTVN's forthcoming websites includes:
COMEDY CENTRAL
-- The Daily Show: The new Daily Show website will be a one-stop
destination for users to search the entire video history of the
show: every headline, every interview and every Back in Black. The site
will also feature the previous evening's episode in its entirety for
viewing and discussion.
-- The Sarah Silverman Program: Launching this September, the updated
Sarah Silverman Program website will feature exclusive video from Sarah
and her friends, with new clips rolling out every week. Fans will be
able to check out The Sarah Silverman Program Nuggets, a fictional look
at the goings-on behind the scenes, as well as original animated shorts
and a daily blog with stories from the set, messages from the show
creators, and updates on the whole cast.
-- Jokes.com: Launching in Q1 2008, Jokes.com is the one-stop shop for
everything stand-up and jokes related. The new site will house
comedycentral.com's entire jokes database, a video archive of all
COMEDY CENTRAL stand-up programming, a Comedians A-Z database and
user-generated video contributions.
-- SouthParkStudios.com: SouthParkStudios.com, the long running official
fan site of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning South Park, will
re-launch in the first quarter of 2008 with a wealth of new content
from the groundbreaking animated series. As the new online home for
South Park, the site will create a Web presence equaling the popularity
and power of the series' brand.
GameTrailers
-- WikiCheats.com: GameTrailers.com's new WikiCheats.com site will
provide video gamers with tricks and special commands to help them with
game play.
Logo
-- Alien Boot Camp: A destination for fans of gay animation, with the
largest collection of short gay animated videos anywhere online,
included clips from Logo original series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay
Couple in All the World.
MTV
-- Dances From Tha Hood: Hosted by Tweety, Dances From Tha Hood offers
MTV viewers step-by-step instructions for all the latest dance moves
for hip-hop and other genres. Viewers can also submit their own clips
of their own fancy footwork and become experts in their own right.
-- Engaged and Underage Couples Court: Based on the hit MTV on-air
franchise, the Engaged and Underage Couples Court website will allow
fans to create joint dispute pages chronicling their arguments and
disagreements through blog posts, photos and videos. With the help
from a jury of their peers, couples will benefit from first-hand advice
from the broader community.
-- Fashion: Because MTV's viewers dictate the trends and fashions of
today, the new Fashion vertical will chronicle the latest trends across
the nation based on what viewers actually are wearing, not what a
magazine says they should be wearing.
-- Take Action. Make Art.: MTV & HP will challenge youth to create
graphics for a special edition HP notebook PC that will be made
available to consumers worldwide in March 2008. Designs can be
submitted through October 17 at mtv-tama.com.
Nickelodeon
-- iCarly.com: Fans of the new series can also go online to submit videos
showing their talents, weird skills, homemade animated shorts and much
more. Some of these might even make it into the on-air series itself!
In addition, iCarly.com will feature highlights of the latest webcasts
from the series -- plus additional footage not seen on-air -- weekly
character blogs, and fans can send e-mails, ask questions, post
comments or participate in polls.
The N
-- The-NGames.com: The-NGames.com will become the first major casual
gaming site to focus solely on teen girls. The-N.com, which previously
focused on social games for teen girls with games like Slasher, Avatar
Mall and others, will partner with AddictingGames to produce this new
site. The site launches in Q1 2008.
VH1
-- VH1Eyecandy.com: VH1Eyecandy.com, which launched in a beta version
last month, will be the ultimate digital hub for pop culture fans on
the web, offering more close to 150,000 photographs and 5,000 hours of
video, with new images and video added daily -- in addition to an array
of tools for users to grab, embed, blog and remix photos, videos and
news stories.
MTV Networks International
-- MTV Europe Music Awards Munich 2007: For the first time MTV audiences
can decide the nominees and winners in all-new categories for the
premier European music event hosted by Snoop Dogg on November 1 at
mtvema.com.
-- Nick Kids' Choice Awards (UK): A dedicated area where kids can vote
for the winners, enter competitions and play games related to the
first-ever Nick Kids' Choice Awards in the UK on October 20, hosted by
McFly.
-- See Something, Say Something (UK): In the coming weeks, Nickelodeon
will launch a new multi-platform campaign to empower kids to speak out
against bullying. This will include information online on what to do
about bullying, video clips dedicated to the issue and community
resources.
-- Living on the Edge virtual world (UK): MTV will launch a virtual world
dedicated to the new local original production Living on the Edge --
the UK's answer to Laguna Beach.
-- Comedy Blackboard (Germany): Comedy Blackboard, a new site from COMEDY
CENTRAL Germany, will give users the opportunity to exchange any kind
of comedy related offers or information. The main site,
comedycentral.de, will launch a new interactive tool, Comedy Doc.,
where a panel of highly qualified comedy pros will answer questions
related to the careers of comedians.
-- MTV Germany: The most important web site for music and entertainment
in Germany, mtv.de, will be enhanced in November with new cutting-edge
design and features such as video content related to MTV's biggest
shows, user interaction and uploads.
-- MTV Hungary: A new local language website, mtv.co.hu, will debut on
October 1 in conjunction with the launch of MTV Hungary.
-- MTV Ukraine: This week MTV Ukraine launched on-air and online at
mtv.ua.
-- VIVA Comet Awards (Poland): A dedicated site for the VIVA Comet Awards
on October 4 at comet.vivapolska.tv enables fans to interact with one
of Poland's biggest events on the music calendar.
-- MTV Japan: On September 18, MTV will launch blogs across its site at
mtvjapan.com dedicated to each area - News, Music, Cinema & VJs.
-- MTV Southeast Asia: MTV will roll-out a series of online games,
virtual worlds and social networking tools over the coming weeks for
users in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines with
additional countries to follow.
-- WebeoTV: Bands upload video of their life "behind the scenes" be it on
the road, recording their next album or how they spent their summer
vacation and MTV Latin America creates webisodes from the material for
fans to see.
-- Premios MTV (Video Music Awards Latin America): A site dedicated to
this year's show. Fans can vote in all categories, upload original
audio compositions that may be used in the show, watch their favorite
nominated videos, enter contests and more.
SELECT EXISTING WEBSITES:
MTVN already boasts a roster of successful targeted websites that
include, among others:
COMEDY CENTRAL
-- COMEDY CENTRAL's Indecision2008.com: a tongue-in-cheek election portal
featuring clips from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert
Report and Lil' Bush; the Indecider blog, uncovering humor along the
campaign trail; and a host of interactive widgets for red and blue
states alike.
Logo
-- 365Gay.com: The nation's premiere source for online news of interest
to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
-- AfterEllen.com: Lesbian entertainment news, reviews blogs, web shows
and discussion has a home at this acclaimed site.
-- AfterElton.com: The gay male companion to AfterEllen.com, this site is
the top source for the latest news and reviews about gay celebrities,
films, TV and music.
-- HappiestGayCouple.com: The companion super fan site for Logo's hit
animated series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World
includes robust discussion, create your own comics, videos and more.
-- VisibleVote08.com: Launched in conjunction with Logo's historic
presidential forum on LGBT issues, this site is the home for news and
information for LGBT voters from now through inauguration day 2009.
-- NewNowNext.com: The smartest, savviest blog with latest in LGBT music,
movies, TV, tech and celebrity news.
-- DowneLink.com: Recently acquired by Logo, this the leading social
networking site for the multicultural LGBT audience.
MTV
-- Real World Casting, through which more than 220,000 viewers submitted
90-second "confessional" videos to audition for The Real World:
Hollywood. The lucky person with the most votes earns a spot on the
next season of one of MTV's most popular television shows.
-- YoMomma.tv, which allows viewers to wade through tens of thousands of
disses, upload their own jokes and enter the 'battle ring' to go
head-to-head with each other, with viewers choosing the best disser.
-- Wannabemade.com, which allows viewers to launch their own personal
development journeys that are chronicled on the viewer's profile page
and can be captured on-air as part of the on-air season of Made.
-- ShortCircuitz.MTV.com features a hilarious, rapid-fire collection of
professional and user-generated fake TV shows, phony news reports,
off-the-wall commercial spoofs, and parodies of anything and everything
else on TV.
-- MySuperSweet16.com is the ultimate community for coming-of-age
teenagers to gossip, brag, share, and get help from friends in planning
all of the details surrounding their seminal 16th birthday party.
Nickelodeon
-- NickArcade.com: Nick's successful paid downloadable games business.
-- Nicktropolis: The fastest growing virtual world for kids.
-- Quizilla.com: A top user-generated creative community for teens where
they can create and share quizzes, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, polls
and other creative content.
-- Shockwave.com: The definitive gaming destination for families.
-- AddictingGames.com: The best free online games site on the Web serving
millions each month.
VH1
-- VH1's "The Score" is a user-generated driven site where amateur music
producers upload original work for consideration to become official
scores for select VH1 on-air programming. The Score's first competition
centers on the 2007 VH1 Hip Hop Honors, airing on VH1 in October. The
winner will create the official score to this year's VH1 Hip Hop
Honors.
-- VH1Classic.com is an immersive, online extension of the TV channel
dedicated to the classic music and artists of the 70's, 80's and early
90's. The site features thousands of videos and exclusive VH1 Classic
performances and programming.
-- VH1's BestWeekEver.tv, which launched more than a year ago, is the
online counterpart to the weekly pop culture and celebrity news show.
-- The I Love New York 2 and Flavor of Love 3 casting sites are giving
fans the opportunity to submit themselves for consideration in both
shows and vote for futures potential candidates in the upcoming
seasons.
About MTV Networks
MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the
world's leading creators of programming and content across all media
platforms. MTV Networks, with more than 140 channels worldwide, owns and
operates the following television programming services -- MTV: MUSIC
TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV
LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN/THE N, VH1 CLASSIC, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE
DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package of 13 digital services, all of
these networks trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks connects with its
audiences through its robust consumer products businesses and its more than
300 interactive properties worldwide, including online, broadband, wireless
and interactive television services and also has licensing agreements,
joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its programming
services can be seen worldwide.
SOURCE MTV Networks
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Related links:
http://www.mtv.com/
CONTACT:
Lauren Hurvitz of MTV Networks,
+1-212-846-8036, lauren.hurvitz@mtvstaff.com
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