News Blog

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.

Microsoft is reportedly working on its own version of Nintendo's Wiimote and plans to introduce it by the end of the year. The report comes from MTV News, which attributes the information to a developer "who has been brief on the project" but sought anonymity to preserve business relationships.

The source told MTV News that the project, supposedly in development since last August, is being designed by Rare, the U.K.-based game studio acquired by the software giant in 2002. Microsoft would not comment on the report.

Although its functions are similar to those of the Wiimote, according to the report, the device does not need a companion controller to be used with it. The device has "face buttons, an analog stick, and microphone," MTV News said. A purported sketch of a working prototype of the device can be seen here.

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.

A still intact Johnny Knoxville recoups.

(Credit: Naomi Nelson)

The more dangerous--and pointless--the dare, the happier Johnny Knoxville is. Whether it's being gored by a bull or electrocuted by a taser, or starring in a remake of the Dukes of Hazzard, Knoxville is game.

Now the actor, comedian, and co-creator of the Jackass movies, known for wince-inducing stunts, will try his luck on the Web.

To promote the official launch of Jackassworld.com, the Internet site jointly run by Knoxville and MTV, the cable network is allowing Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, and the rest of the Jackass crew to take over programming for an entire day, starting Saturday.

The Web site, which will feature the same bet-you-wouldn't-do-this spectacles as the movies, is an example of how MTV is banking on dozens of Web sites that target a separate demographic group or fan base for each of its shows. The idea is to make it easier for people to find and interact with shows and their casts.

Knoxville, who suffered a groin injury while filming a tribute to the late Evel Knievel for the February 23 MTV show, spoke with CNET News.com on Thursday.

Tell us about your injury. How did it happen?
We were doing a tribute to Evel Knievel for our takeover (of MTV) this Saturday. During the filming, I decided I could back-flip a motorcycle. They had to let out the clutch for me. No one thought I could even make it to the ramp. I didn't the first time but I did it four other times.

The last time I hit the ramp and let go of the bike and it goes 15 to 20 feet above my head and comes down when I was laying spread eagle and it breaks the handle bar off between my legs.

It hit me right on the rim and tore my urethra. No long-term damage, though.

You going to be OK?
The prognosis is great. I'm a man again.

Why not just keep doing the movies? Why move to the Web?

On Jackassworld.com, it's like an R-rated film. You can show whatever you want and it's immediate. When you're filming a TV show it takes a couple of weeks to get to air, and a movie takes months to get to air. I can film a bit last night and it can be up today. That's pretty great because we're all hot to film again.

But is the Internet ready for you guys on a regular basis? Is Viacom (MTV's parent company) ready for you?
Viacom left us alone. They've been very supportive in all this. It's fun, man, having this outlet, you don't have to wait for months to have something come out. You can just shoot it and get it up and be on to something else...like productivity in the a**hole department is going to be up 73 percent, you know what I mean?

In some tech circles, Viacom is the symbol of botched digital strategies and old-media thinking.

There's little doubt that operating under Viacom's umbrella has hurt MTV's hipster cred with some tech-savvy music fans. MTV managers, however, are trying to dispel the notion that the company is technology backward, fearful of sharing its content online, and has missed out on the Internet age.

On Tuesday, Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music and Logo Group, and some of his top managers met with CNET News.com at San Francisco's Hotel Vitale to outline the company's digital strategy for the future. Indeed, this unit of Viacom appears more willing than any other part of the conglomerate to strike out into areas it has historically failed at or avoided, such as content syndication, social networking, and digital downloads.

"I'm impressed with how experimental they are being," said Charlene Li, an analyst with Forrester Research. "This is a company that is taking a lot of risks...really, more than any other big media company."

Viacom, parent company of MTV, Paramount Pictures, and BET, is perceived by many to jealously guard its content from users posting it on non-Viacom Web sites. Not MTV. The company now offers an embeddable video player that allows users to post every piece of MTV content to which the company owns the rights.

The strategy unveiled Tuesday also details MTV's efforts to get into the social-networking game. In 2005, News Corp. outbid Viacom for social-networking giant MySpace.com. Since then, Viacom has largely been on the sidelines in the growing market. Now the company is focusing on creating a vast array of highly targeted Web sites that are loosely connected and focus mostly on programming such as VH1 Classic, Jackass, and Sucker Free on MTV.

These Web sites will be at the core of the company's digital efforts. MTV sees its content as its strength, and Toffler said he intends to make it more available on the Web than ever before.

In the past year, the company has constructed 32 new sites. The idea is to create a type of assembly line for Web sites, according to Jeff Yapp, executive vice president of program enterprises for MTV Networks' Music & Logo Group.

Those sites that find an audience will continue to be nurtured and those that don't will be stripped down and "reskinned," or refitted for the next experiment. The company also doesn't plan to spend wildly in promoting the sites. It has confidence in their content and the viral ability of the Web to spread the word.

In regards to dowload sales, where the music icon really has missed the boat, MTV is trying to recover from Urge, the online music store and iTunes competitor that it launched in partnership with Microsoft in 2006. The site never truly got off the ground, but MTV announced last year it will try again with help from RealNetworks' Rhapsody service.

MTV is also branching in new directions from its competitors. The company is amid a $500 million spending plan into video games, the high point of which was the 2006 acquisition of Harmonix Music Systems, makers of the rock-and-roll simulation game Rock Band.

The company sold 1.3 million units of the game last year and the deal has helped MTV find a new way to sell music. Rock Band owners pay between 99 cents and $3 to download songs for the game.

Toffler and his staff credit Viacom's management with bankrolling the experiments and allowing the unit to operate like a start-up.

The moves could help convince fans that MTV is still an arbiter of youth culture.

Viacom may have filed a $1 billion copyright lawsuit against Google's YouTube and sends out reams of legal notices demanding that fans remove their video content, but MTV wants everyone to know that it isn't at war with technology or music fans.

"I tell my staff all the time, in this situation cats have to marry dogs," Toffler said. "We have to make a successful marriage of our content with technology. And that's what we're going to do."

While MTV appears very willing to stick a toe into new business models, there are signs that some areas still give it pause.

Forrester's Li said MTV has not been very aggressive when it comes user-generated content.

But Toffler said the company has more surprises coming, including a high-definition video player as well as more music-focused video games from Harmonix.

"We have a lot of confidence in our content," Toffler said. "Were going to make our Web sites more interactive and engage our users with that content. It's not just going to be people chatting online. We'll be able to show advertisers that our users are immersed when they visit our sites."

Back in early September, I wrote about the five finalists to win a combined $250,000 in development funding from MTV and Cisco, sponsors of the Digital Incubator contest for university-grown Web apps.

Today, they announced a prize even grander than the first--$100,000 in addition to the $30,000 finalist grant already applied to RapHappy.com's development. The social network for recording, editing, distributing, and commenting on user-generated raps won Digital Incubator's judges with a business plan detailing the nascent company's next level of growth.

Ben Leduc-Mills and Matt Fargo, both graduate students in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program and the brains behind RapHappy, are nothing short of jubilant. "We want to give a great big hug to all of you who helped us get this far," reads the message on their Web site, "But I guess you'll just have to settle for a big shoutout on the Web site instead. Thanks though, really. It's your amazing raps that won it for us."

In addition to the Web site, RapHappy rappers can also lay down vocals via hotline (for inspired cell phone rapping) and through a Facebook app.

Spears in happier times.

(Credit: Ellen von Unwerth/Jive Records 2007)

Rising up out of the chaos and career collapse that was Britney Spears' performance on Sunday are MTV's traffic numbers.

The cable channel's Video Music Awards were bad for Britney but a boon for Viacom, MTV's parent company. Users flocked to MTV.com to watch Spears' on-stage misadventures.

On Sunday, MTV.com saw 2.6 million visitors log on, a tally that smashed the site's previous record for daily Web site traffic. The site also delivered 7 million video streams on Monday as of 3:30 p.m. ET, which topped its previous best day of 6.7 million.

In a spectacle that will likely serve as an entertainment-industry cautionary tale, Spears kicked off the VMA awards with an underwhelming dance and song performance. The event was supposed to breath life back into the star's flagging career but likely fell far short of that goal.

The pudgy Spears, dressed in black bikini, flubbed her song-and-dance number by forgetting words to music she was only required to lip sync. She also lumbered across the stage with uninspired "dance" moves.

In an appeal to the coveted youth vote in the upcoming presidential elections, MySpace and MTV announced Thursday that they have joined forces for a series of "one-on-one dialogues" with all the major candidates from both political parties--televised and Webcast events in which presidential hopefuls will answer questions from MySpace members and MTV watchers. Formally, it's a collaboration between MySpace's "Impact" political channel and MTV's "Choose or Lose" election effort (which it has been operating since the dinosaur days of the 1992 election), and it's the first collaboration that the News Corp.-owned social networking site has had with the Viacom-owned pop culture conglomerate.

The conversations with individual presidential candidates will be held town-hall style on college campuses, webcast live on the MySpaceTV video platform (previous coverage here) and MTV.com, and broadcast later that evening on MTV as well as the MTVU college campus television network.

"These dialogues are not going to be a debate," Ian Rowe, MTV's vice president of strategic partnerships, said in an interview with CNET News.com. "They're going to be one-on-one, unfiltered conversations between a group of young people who are sitting inside a college campus auditorium (and) an audience online (that) will have the ability to submit questions in real-time." Rowe added that this will be a totally interactive experience. "They'll be able to literally respond to what the candidate is actually saying during the conversation. Even if you don't have the opportunity to physically be in the room, you can participate tangibly in the conversation."

MySpace had initially announced its plans to hold presidential town hall events in May, but no further developments were provided at the time. The social network also plans to hold a mock election early in 2008.

The first of the MTV-MySpace dialogues has been confirmed for September 27, with Democratic candidate John Edwards in the key primary state of New Hampshire. Future events will individually involve Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, and Bill Richardson; and Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Sam Brownback. The only missing candidate of note is arguably former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican whose surprising second-place finish in the Iowa straw polls suddenly catapulted him into the label of "dark horse."

If the prominence of blogs in the political process was the major digital media development of the 2004 presidential election and the "paper trail" of YouTube videos was what marked the 2006 midterms (recall former Sen. George Allen's "macaca moment"), it appears that "interactive" conversations with presidential candidates, thanks to new media platforms, are coming to define the '08 campaign. Earlier this summer, CNN and YouTube collaborated on a formal Democratic debate in which YouTube users could submit video questions in advance of the event. In the MTV-MySpace "dialogues," these questions may be submitted live--through either the MySpaceIM instant messaging platform, e-mail, or text messaging.

"We're offering participation through all the tools of new media," said Jeff Berman, MySpace's general manager of video operations. Representatives from both companies hinted that further details will become available throughout the next few weeks.