• TheStreet.com, Thursday, September 13, 2007 10:30 AM

The so-called "Britney Bomb" at MTV's Video Music Awards was certainly a ratings boost for Viacom's MTV, but it was also, significantly, a great day for online video providers--particularly MTV. According to the Street.com, MTV's strategy to show the awards once on cable television provided the boost it wanted for its Web site. And Britney Spears' "universally celebrated" disaster comeback helped drive the highest day of traffic ever on MTV.com in terms of unique visitors and video streams.

However, the Spears-driven online frenzy also proved to be a red-letter day for Google's YouTube. TheStreet.com says that--to the chagrin of Viacom--Spears' performance was the most-viewed clip on the Google video site, which is being sued by the MTV parent for $1 billion for precisely that kind of thing. Of course, per YouTube's compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, clips of the Britney Bomb were removed at Viacom's request.

Nevertheless, David Joyce, an analyst with Miller Tabak, says that MTV took its opportunity to engage with digital users well. MTV placed teaser clips from post-VMA parties on MTV.com and let users access other content on handheld devices and personal computers. He said that while MTV may be losing its audience to the Web, the awards were a good example of a traditional media company adapting and monetizing its content across various platforms.

Read the whole story at TheStreet.com »