The deal calls for the Action Sports Tour, a 3-year-old property focusing on skateboarding and motocross, to be co-owned by NBCU and MTVN. The AST is a global, youth-oriented, multimedia endeavor that includes the AST Dew Tour, the AST Winter Dew Tour and the amateur Free Flow Tour.
NBCU will continue to offer coverage of AST competition on NBC, while MTVN will supply related lifestyle programming and multi-platform content and branch into product licensing. In addition, MTV will highlight the musical aspects of the tour, with MTV2 spotlighting emerging local artists as part of the tour's overall activities.
"MTV pioneered the marriage of music, sports and lifestyle back in the early 1990s," said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music and Logo Group. "By joining forces with NBC Sports on the AST, we'll be giving our audience the chance to experience a next-generation sports tour that covers it all."
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Added Wade Martin, AST president and GM: "The partnership will bolster the AST, and action sports as a whole, on so many levels." Martin will keep his current post and oversee tour sales, marketing, business development and operations for the MTVN/NBCU joint venture.