• Hollywood Reporter, Friday, September 7, 2007 12 PM

Web sites for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and two dozen other brands that fall under the MTV Networks umbrella are being prepared for a first-quarter launch, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "The Daily Show" site, for example, which actually launches in the fourth quarter, will contain the entire video history of each show, including headlines, interviews and the "Back in Black" feature. Episodes will be available in their entirety an hour or two after broadcast.

Other shows receiving their own sites include Comedy Central's "The Sarah Silverman Program," MTV's "Engaged and Underage" and Nickelodeon's "iCarly." No mention was made of the "The Colbert Report." The company is also launching a game site for teenage girls, a wiki site for video game cheats called WikiCheats.com and niche-oriented sites for everything from hip-hop dance to gay-focused animation. VH1EyeCandy.com, a pop culture site, will also get a full launch.

The move is part of a broader anti-portal strategy adopted by MTV last year, but is separate from the estimated $75 million deal it recently struck with the South Park guys. MTV's overarching idea is to turn its popular brands into Web destinations by pushing content, games, promotions, TV schedules and forums for user feedback on their sites. Will the long-tail approach work? Can so many disparate brands be organized efficiently into a single hub? Does MTV even intend to do this? It would seem that the idea is to grow some of the newer content destinations virally, while letting the TV shows' popularity help others grow.

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