A screen shot of one of the shows offered at Logoonline.com
(Credit: MTV Networks)Execs at MTV Networks say the best way to distribute media over the Web is to "go an inch wide but a mile deep."
Instead of one central Web destination, Viacom-owned MTV Networks is building hundreds of sites around its content. An example of that strategy can be found at Logo, the unit that serves the gay and lesbian community.
Logo launched a new video hub on Wednesday that Lisa Sherman, Logo's general manager, said will feature 3,000 ad-supported clips and be the largest central library of videos for the gay and lesbian audience.
"This is the kind of content that has only been available at art houses," Sherman said. "But the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) audience, can now check out content that has never been available to them nationally."
Some of the full-episode shows that can be found at Logoonline.com are Big Gay Sketch, Noah's Arc, and Outlaugh Festival on Wisecrack. Documentaries include Elephant in the Room and The Two Cubas.
There are also short clips, news, and music.
Sherman said the site reflects Viacom's "super niche" strategy, which is about delivering content to very small markets in addition to the big ones.
Logo's digital cable channel launched three years ago and is now available in 32 million homes in 25 markets.
It's only rock 'n roll, but Wii like it. Harmonix, the game developer acquired by MTV Networks to create the Rock Band video game, announced Monday that the software will be available for Nintendo's Wii console on June 22. Currently, versions of Rock Band have been created for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.
(Credit:
Harmonix/MTV)
Rumors of a Wii edition of Rock Band first started to circulate early last month. The game was originally released in November amid the soaring popularity of Activision's Guitar Hero franchise, which had a Hollywood-worthy $115 million opening weekend for its most recent game, Guitar Hero III. MTV's Rock Band puts a spin on the concept by letting participants play bass, drums, and vocals in addition to guitar.
Despite the inherent similarities to Guitar Hero, Rock Band has been a huge hit, too.
But, just like a rerun of Behind the Music, the guitar-playing video game craze has been ridden with drama. Harmonix developed the original Guitar Hero, but MTV Networks acquired it in 2006 to create rival Rock Band and distribute it through gaming mega-publisher Electronic Arts. Meanwhile, guitar manufacturer Gibson Guitar has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band as well as six major retailers--according to Gibson, it's held a patent on a guitar-playing video game since 1999.
So far, none of the gaming console manufacturers--Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo--have been targeted by Gibson's suit.
The June 22 Rock Band Wii release will encompass the U.S. and Canada markets, and a core bundle (software, drums, microphone, and one guitar) will cost $169.99. Standalone instruments will also be sold. It'll feature a lineup of 63 songs, including five exclusive to the Wii.
Someone apparently hacked into a computer belong to an employee of MTV Networks and possibly gained access to names, birth dates, social security numbers and compensation data of 5,000 employees.
MTV Networks, a unit of media conglomerate Viacom, notified employees of the security compromise on Friday and said that while the computer files pertaining to employees' private information were password protected, the company can't be sure they haven't been opened.
"Once we learned of the incident, we immediately launched an internal investigation," the company said in a statement. "We ... contacted appropriate law enforcement authorities, who have begun a criminal investigation."
The company apologized to employees and provided phone numbers to credit-monitoring services to help protect them from identity theft.
MTV, Real, and Verizon Wireless have 'formed Voltron' in an effort to take on the iTunes behemoth.
(Credit: TV Tokyo)With their new joint digital music initiative, MTV Networks, RealNetworks and Verizon Wireless are taking a direct aim at Apple's iTunes powerhouse.
Called Rhapsody America, the yet-to-launch collaboration among the three companies will combine MTV's relatively unsuccessful Urge music store, the Real-owned Rhapsody subscription download service, and Verizon's V Cast mobile media service to create a music store that reaches across the PC, digital music player, and mobile phone platforms.
The new Rhapsody America company is officially a joint venture between MTV Networks and Real Networks, with Verizon Wireless as its exclusive mobile partner. Urge as a brand will cease to exist, with Rhapsody becoming the service of choice for MTV Networks' MTV, VH1, and CMT music brands. Michael Bloom, general manager of MTV's Urge, has been appointed head of the new company, and the company's offices will be located in New York, San Francisco and Seattle.
Urge had been launched as a music store in conjunction with MTV Networks' music brands, but its highly publicized deal with Microsoft had fallen by the wayside as the software company launched its Zune music player and accompanying music store.
Executives from MTV, Real, and Verizon held a joint conference call on Tuesday morning, filled with talk of "alliances" and "joining forces" that evoked superhero Captain Planet or Voltron. "The collaboration of these three companies is like a perfect storm," said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks' Music/Logo/Films group, who added that they're striving to make Rhapsody America "the best service out there, hands-down."
"The notion of combining with these two marketing behemoths is very, very exciting from our standpoint," said Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks. "This is a relationship that we spent a long time putting together." RealNetworks, which holds the larger stake in Rhapsody America, has been trying to expand its footprint in the music sales world for some time now through high-profile partnerships.
Few details about the revamped Rhapsody were actually disclosed--pricing, for example, or details regarding finances--but the executives hinted that Rhapsody tie-ins will start to appear as part of the MTV Video Music Awards, which will be broadcast from Las Vegas on September 9.
The executives from all three companies talked up the Verizon deal as crucial to the nature of Rhapsody America. "Our audiences have made it crystal clear that they really want their music accessible wherever they might be," Toffler said. Glaser added that over-the-air downloads through V Cast epitomize Real's goal of a "jukebox in the sky," which he said has been the company's aim since it launched the first RealPlayer in 1995.
More importantly, it's a potential arsenal in the fight to catch up with Apple's iTunes store, the inarguable leader in the digital music sales industry: iTunes offers no mobile download capabilities. John Stratton, Verizon's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, reminded those listening to the conference call that V Cast mobile phones now support 4GB of storage and will support eight by the end of the year--an underhanded nod to the storage capacity of Apple's own iPhone.
The formation of Rhapsody America is the latest move in a music industry trend to prime new strategies for an assault on iTunes. Most recently, Universal Music Group announced that it would not be renewing its contract with Apple's music store and that it would be making portions of its catalog available without digital rights management protection to a number of non-iTunes outlets, one of which is Rhapsody.
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