MTV Networks is going to launch thousands of web sites (having already 150 Web sites in 162 countries) similar to such as Youtube, Myspace, Blip.tv, Google video in order to rebuff the competitors. Their new risky trick will allow users to watch, contribute and re-edit its TV shows. The pro is an opportunity to take videos and post them on their own Web sites.
“People tend to find content on the Internet through thousands of front doors as opposed to one,” said Mika Salmi, the new digital president of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc.
“In some ways we’re in a better position than most media companies are - we’re where people want to be.”
One of the numerous goals is to attract more people. Viacom wants to reach a wider audience that is spending as much time on the Internet and on video games as watching television. By all means, including not only the web sources, but mobile TV phones, MTV
networks step by step can attain fame or loose everything.
“The goal is hopefully to tie it all together over the next year, and to be far more open,” said Salmi, who joined MTV Networks last summer after Viacom purchased Atom Entertainment, known for online short films and games. “Consumers love these shows. Let’s get them involved.”
“In the coming months, Salmi said the company plans to open up more of its archives, allowing Internet users to take videos and post them on their own sites and also re-edit some clips.”
“ComedyCentral.com already allows viewers to post, or embed, some of its videos on their own sites.”
“Consumers want control,” Pali Capital analyst Richard Greenfield said. “Fighting that trend is not a winning strategy…They’re moving in the right direction now.”
In February, Viacom, owner of MTV Networks and the Paramount Pictures movie studio, pulled all its clips (more than 100,000 unauthorized Viacom video clips) from YouTube (the top online video sharing service). The reason is – Viacom’s plans to launch its own video sharing website that comprises a great many video features alike YouTube.
“Viacom says the move has helped boost traffic to its own sites - traffic in January to MTV.com jumped 55 percent and ComedyCentral.com nearly doubled from a year ago.”
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