(20 December 2006 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: With a view to building upon its wireless initiatives and its efforts in creating original content for mobile US, broadcaster MTV has created MTVN Mobile Media.

This new unit is dedicated to growing the company’s mobile entertainment business.

MTVN Mobile Media will be responsible for managing mobile partnerships and content distribution for the company, and will support the teams at the individual MTVN brands in developing a wide portfolio of mobile content and applications--including personalisation, entertainment, information and messaging products.

The unit will be led by Greg Clayman, who has been promoted to MTVN Mobile Media senior VP. MTVN Mobile Media reports into MTVN Global Digital Media, led by its president Mika Salmi, and MTVN Affiliate Sales and Marketing, led by its president Nicole Browning.

MTV Networks chairman and CEO Judy McGrath says, “Connecting with our consumers on every platform they love is at the heart of our digital strategy. MTVN Mobile Media will help our brands take it even further in distribution and product development, and it will expand our global wireless footprint even more, so the communities around our brands can access our content anywhere.”

Salmi says, “Our audiences lead an on-demand lifestyle and our brands deliver the best pop-culture, music, comedy and entertainment programming on the handset. With MTVN Mobile Media, we’re poised to deliver even more compelling mobile content and further deepen our connection with our viewers.”

MTV says that it publishes more than 600 clips and 30 hours of video per month in the United States alone, across all major carriers and leading MVNOs. Globally, the company has partnerships with 68 carriers and connections with more than one billion subscribers, making MTVN the largest wireless content provider of any entertainment company.

Browning says, “We are clearly primed to take our programming to the next level, and as we build on our fast-growing mobile video business and add more channels, more content, and more distribution around the world, we will continue to focus on mobile games, personalization products such as ringtones and graphics, and mobile web site development.”

The MTVN mobile programming spanning every genre of entertainment and engaging nearly every demographic includes:

• Original made-for-mobile programs, including MTV’s Sway’s Hip Hop Owner’s Manual, Comedy Central's Clip Joint and VH1’s Celebhead.

• Extensions from such television franchises as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; Laguna Beach; SpongeBob SquarePants; VH1’s Best Week Ever; Logo’s Noah’s Arc.

• Original animation, such as Usavitch and Lightman from Flux in Japan and MTV International’s “Wulffmorgenthaler”;

• “Making of,” behind-the-scenes and after-shows developed exclusively for the wireless medium;

• MTV, VH1 and CMT music video premieres and exclusive music performances from such franchises as VH1’s Live@VH1.com and CMT’s Studio 330 Sessions and simulcasts of tentpole properties like The MTV Europe Music Awards;

• Content highlighting social issues important to MTVN audiences, such as MTVN International’s HIV/Aids prevention campaign, Staying Alive;

• The largest selection of stand-up comedy on mobile, made available by Comedy Central.

MTVN also has forged new ground with a number of notable industry firsts: Nickelodeon was the first kids’ television network to offer text messaging promoted on-air. Spike TV Mobile, in partnership with Amp’d Mobile, was the first network to stream a sporting event live on the handset. VH1 is defining the standard for television/mobile integration with Mobile Junk 20, an extension of the “Web Junk 20” television show that seamlessly migrates viewers from the television set, to the handset and back to the television. And Neopets introduced the first entertainment-based web-to-wireless application of its kind, letting Neopets members engage with their Neopets characters, stories and activities on their handsets just as they would online.