(31 December 2007 3:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Driven by music, MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com video streams topped more than 1.2 billion in 2007.

This was a 30 per cent improvement over 2006. US media conglomerate Viacom says that the sites attract nearly 30 million unique visitors every month. Music videos accounted for nearly half of the streams, as viewers sought out their favorite artists and discovered new ones from a cross-section of genres, including pop and hip hop, country and rock.

Music videos also drove MTV Mobile, VH1 Mobile and CMT Mobile into triple-digit growth in 2007. In fact, music videos accounted for every single one of the top 10 most-streamed videos on the three services.

MTV Networks’ music group president Van Toffler says, "Music was at the core of everything we did in 2007. And, once again, MTV, VH1 and CMT produced the year’s most memorable events in music"

In the first-ever ranking of the 30 most-popular music videos streamed on MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com, women ruled, country crossed over and VMA artists tore it up in 2007. Female acts dominated the year-end chart, accounting for eight of the Top 10 songs. Britney Spears had the most-streamed video with her live performance of Gimme More during the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards (VMA). Avril Lavigne came in second with Girlfriend and Rihanna, another VMA performer, came in third with Umbrella.

New artists like Paramore -- a band that gained notoriety through MTV’s 52/52 initiative -- stormed this year’s chart with Misery Business at number 22. The Plain White T’s got the number 27 spot with Hey There Delilah.

Soulja Boy’s "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)" was the most-streamed video on both MTV Mobile and VH1 Mobile. Sugarland’s "Stay" which the group performed live during the CMT Music Awards, clinched the top spot on CMT Mobile. MTV Mobile streams grew 90 percent over 2006, while VH1 streams grew by 100 per cent and CMT recorded a 252 per cent surge.

Curated music programming also performed well. MTV Mobile’s most-viewed show content was the original made-for-mobile series, Dances From the Hood. VH1 launched "Pop Up Mobile to Go" a made-for-mobile version of the hugely popular VH1 series, featuring music videos from Janet Jackson, the Beastie Boys, Rihanna, Black Eyed Peas and Nelly. And MTV Tr3s Mobile, introduced this year, has grown 65 per cent every month since March, making it the fastest- growing mobile brand ever in the MTVN portfolio.

At MTV.com, viewers used the new Video Remixer to create more than 8,200 remixes of Britney Spears’ latest single Piece of Me. Throughout the year, viewers could also remix videos from Kelly Clarkson, Common, Nelly Furtado and Paramore.