• by Wayne Friedman , January 26, 2009

One of the better-known brand TV names -- MTV Networks--will now be selling advertising time for the growing young Internet video site JibJab.com.

While JibJab.com has grown into a sizable player--6.3 million registered members and 105 million visits in 2008--it has had a difficult time making deals with major advertisers, as have other mid-sized Internet businesses fighting for air in a tough economy.

"JibJab has extensive reach, but has always struggled to get mind share with a large number of big brands," said JibJab's CEO, Gregg Spiridellis, in a release.

JibJab.com will become part of a newly developed "Comedy Tribe" MTV advertising network, riffing off MTV's "Tribes" vertical advertising network. MTV's ComedyCentral.com is also part of the new "Comedy Tribe."

Heather Hopkins, senior vice president and general manager of Tribes, said in a release: "With the launch of the Comedy Tribe and the partnership with JibJab, we're able to offer advertisers access to even more consumers as well as high levels of targetability, accountability and deep brand integrations across some of the most popular and premium comedy sites on the Web."

Comedy Tribe joins other MTV Network advertising Tribe areas, such as Parenting Tribe, from ParentsConnect.com, MTV Generation Tribe and Tribes from CMT, Spike and VH1.

MTVN currently sells inventory across more than 220 partner sites and offers 17 vertical targeting categories from its Tribe networks.