• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, January 11, 2007

Expanding their partnership, MTV Networks and youth-oriented Amp'd Mobile announced Wednesday that they plan to develop original episodic shows exclusively for the Amp'd phone.

The agreement builds on two previous projects: "Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States," an animated series originally produced for Amp'd Mobile and now being adapted for Comedy Central later this year; and mtvU's "Sucks Less, With Kevin Smith," which appears on Amp'd and features filmmaker Kevin Smith teaching the first-ever mobile media production class at UCLA. Other details of the deal, including how many mobile series the companies will create or what their subject matter will be, remain unclear.

Programming being developed through the new partnership may appear on any of MTV's channels on Amp'd including MTV, mtvU, VH1, Comedy Central, Spike and Logo. The original mobile shows are not expected to carry any advertising, according to an MTV spokesman.

"MTV Networks and Amp'd Mobile are building an entirely new model for the creation, development and distribution of short-form programming for consumers to access on their handset," said Greg Clayman, senior vice president of mobile media for MTV Networks, in a statement.

During the fourth quarter of 2006, Amp'd Mobile's original content accounted for 39% of all downloads, according to Seth Cummings, senior vice president of content development and programming at the mobile startup.

Amp'd is one of several mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, launched in the last 18 months. Despite offering loads of content, many MVNOs have struggled to gain traction. content. ESPN shut down its branded mobile venture in September after failing to meet high expectations. So far, Amp'd has fared somewhat better, gaining more than 100,000 subscribers to date. Virgin Mobile USA is generally considered the most successful virtual carrier with more than 4 million subscribers.

For MTV, the deal reflects a bigger push recently into mobile media. Last month, the network launched its own subscription service for mobile content, and last week it announced a deal with Sprint to add "The N," its nighttime network for teens, to the carrier's mobile TV lineup.