- Ad Age, Monday, August 14, 2006 11:48 AM
It will come as little surprise that MTV wants its crown back. For years, Viacom--with brands like MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon--completely ruled cool, yet suddenly it has been forced to
take a back seat to sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. The media conglomerate fought back this past week with two potentially key new deals: a video distribution partnership with Google in
which the companies share ad revenue in exchange for use of Google's publisher network, and then the acquisition of Atom Entertainment, a company that runs an online gaming portal. MTV Networks COO
Michael Wolf says that to help ring in the digital revolution, the company wants to become the on-ramp for consumer marketers to the Internet--a relatively foreign place still for many consumer
brands, which MTV will work with to help them get online. He says there will be no restrictions on the Web syndication deal with Google: it was rumored that sites with less than 100,000 users would
not be able to participate. "We want our content to create a network effect," he says, adding that the deal "promises to be a groundbreaking way for content to be distributed and monetized on the
Internet." MTV also wants to have a stronger presence in the booming world of casual gaming--which is why the $200 million splashed on Atom, which it can use in concert with its other Xfire and
Gametrailers.com, its other gaming acquisitions.
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