Paramount Global is purging all MTV News photos, news and video content, as well as taking down thousands of CMT articles and video content from Comedy Central, from its branded website.
The move shows the lengths companies will go to in order to reach financial stability -- at any level.
The company recently shifted all this content to its Paramount+ web area.
A company release says: “As part of broader website changes across Paramount, we have introduced more streamlined versions of our sites, driving fans to Paramount+ to watch their favorite shows.”
On the surface, this would seem to help direct consumers to those areas where there is business growth.
At the same time, one wonders about the harm to long-time brand-value of those Paramount (formerly ViacomCBS) cable TV network brand names.
Now, several days after its decision to shift that content to Paramount+ -- as well as disabling MTVNews.com -- the Internet Archive, a non-profit organization of internet content, has constructed an index of over 460,000 web pages that had been on mtvnews.com and/or mtv.com/news.
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Digging deeper, there was a sizable cost to maintaining tons of content on these web areas -- but low usage by consumers.
And we can guess that this reflects back on all things advertising-related: Low usage means less money derived from potential digital advertising sales.
Unlike other areas of the company's new and existing advertising platforms -- TV networks (broadcast and cable), TV stations, streaming services, and other ad businesses -- mostly static websites, even with brand-name monikers, are not enough to keep those now very niche businesses' lights on.
And it's all about appearances.
Paramount Global now is more forthcoming -- and perhaps in survival mode -- when it comes to mergers, spinoffs, deals and/or abandonment of businesses. It's all hands on deck.
If something is not currently bringing in significant revenue -- or is posting expected near term and future losses -- it's time to fade to black.