MTV focuses on the digital frontier at 25

When MTV: Music Television debuted on August 1, 1981, many media experts felt it was doomed.

It was an experimental format trying to get established on an experimental platform -- cable TV. The idea of a 24-hour music video channel never would have worked on traditional broadcast TV at the time. Only in the niche environment of cable could such an idea take root. And did it ever.

MTV programming now appears in some 442 million households in 167 territories worldwide, including 88 million households in the United States, according to MTV Networks.

On the way to becoming an omnipresent youth brand, MTV exemplified the promise of cable TV. "I want my MTV" became not only a call to action for cable operators, but a cultural catchphrase. Along with HBO and a handful of other early cable visionaries, MTV helped legitimize the then-questionable model of pay TV and proved the axiom that has become the rallying cry for all new delivery platforms since: Content is king.

FACING THE UPSTARTS

Today, 25 years after it aired its first music video ("Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles), MTV finds itself in a much different business environment. No longer the upstart challenger to the big media status quo, it is itself a media giant targeted by digital-age challengers. Internet destinations like MySpace, YouTube and even Yahoo are vying for a piece of MTV's once-defining content -- music videos -- as well as competing to be the next purveyor of cool, youth-driven pop culture upon which MTV built its empire.

Like the other mature media giants, MTV's greatest challenge is to determine exactly what it wants to be in this new media era.

"That's true not just for us, but for everyone," says MTV president Christina Norman, who took the helm in May. "All the media companies now are having discussions about things that never would have been fathomed two, three years ago. I think we're finally moving beyond the phase where everyone was afraid to move because they were afraid of making the wrong move, and instead they're just trying things to see what happens."

Just as MTV expanded its programming beyond videos into reality TV and news, it also has been active in establishing a presence on new digital platforms.

MTV.com went live in October 1995, offering the traditional MTV mix of music news, photos and video along with other pop culture information and content.

Then came MTV Overdrive, a broadband Internet video-on-demand service that more closely matches the company's on-air presence with more robust video capabilities. Since it launched in April 2005, Overdrive has become the company's flagship online destination, with more than 1.5 million video streams per day. According to Norman, the biggest challenge is determining how to organize all this content into an easily searchable site.

ENTERTAINMENT EXTENSIONS

With the 2005 Video Music Awards, MTV began experimenting with what Norman calls an "extended viewing experience" that she is now applying to other MTV shows. During the VMAs, Overdrive viewers were able to watch behind-the-scenes footage during commercial breaks and otherwise interact more broadly with the event.

Norman says the trial was a huge success, so much so that MTV is applying the same experience to such shows as "TRL."

This strategy of using the Internet to give viewers more access to content extends to MTV's university feed, mtvU, with its Internet counterpart, mtvU Uber. Norman says she may consider airing other MTV niche programming, such as MTV World, over the Internet.

Wireless is a particularly important medium for MTV. When ringtones began their upward arc, MTV got in on the game through a partnership with the teen-focused Virgin Mobile, offering exclusive ringtones unavailable to other carriers. It even commissioned hip-hop producer Timbaland to produce a suite of original ringtones.

The company continues its mobile presence beyond music, striking deals to bring original short-form programming -- such as animation and live-action video -- to mobile phones.
The mobile strategy has expanded with Flux, a mobile content service that takes different forms in different countries. In the United States, Flux is MTV's direct-to-consumer mobile content storefront, selling ringtones, graphics and so on.

MTV is exploring digital downloads with the test launch of Urge, a subscription music service that is integrated into the next version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player.

CARVING A SOCIAL PROFILE

Just as Urge faces dominant competition from iTunes, MTV was outflanked in the social networking boom when its parent company, Viacom, in 2005 lost out to News Corp. on the bidding for MySpace. Since the acquisition, MySpace's usage has quadrupled, and only the video-sharing site YouTube has come anywhere close to matching its success.

As a company that built its brand as a meeting place for young adults, pop culture and music, MTV will not meekly surrender that digital turf to MySpace and YouTube.

"We know we want to be in social networking, and we know that's where our audience is," says Norman. "But it's important for us to approach this in the right way and not have another 'me too' application."

One strategy is to extend many of MTV's social outreach efforts like Rock the Vote, sexual health campaigns and town-hall-style meetings with politicians into an online community.

On the entertainment front, MTV is readying a number of services that let users post their own content and interact with MTV's content on multiple platforms. Norman says to expect specifics "in the next couple of months."

Content is still king for a company whose programming includes not only vast volumes of music videos but also original series like "The Real World," "Beavis and Butt-Head" and "Punk'd." Yet the challenge and the opportunity in an age with multiple delivery platforms is to determine which content works best via what channel.

"A lot of us are learning how to create to the platform rather than just spreading content across platforms," Norman says. "It gets harder and harder the bigger you get. You'd love for everything to be interconnected in some way or another, but that may not always be the right thing for that channel or that audience. For us it's always about making it addictive for the audience and not just shoving another (program) down (their) throat."

(c) Reuters/Billboard

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