Television For Those Who Don’t Find Anything Interesting On Television

Michael Hedges December 2, 2009 Follow on Twitter

There are really no secrets to building a strong media brand. There need to be a hook, something listeners and viewers can hold on to. Ubiquity helps, too. MTV has it in the bag, quite mixed actually.

The MTV brand entered new territory (November 29), with the debut of cable and satellite channels in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Local media watchers took to calling it MTV Czechoslovakia, overtly referring to the single program for the two formerly joined countries. Mostly, though, the endearment tied a disappeared country to missing – and expected – original material.

TV Nova, owned by Central European Media Enterprises (CME), signed a license agreement with MTV Networks (MTVNE) with the intention of launching the music channel by the end of 2008. Dismal economics pushed back the launch another year. MTV Networks place no local production requirements on license holders and the new MTV Czech and Slovak will be using library material.  

The MTV brand is perpetual youthfulness, cute phrases altogether part of its charm. Implicit is constant reinventing, like any teenage crowd. It is less aspirational than most youth-appeal brands; the MTV world is just about right now.

Too, there is a new reality for any television brand, perhaps no more for MTV than its competitors; the target audience isn’t spending a lot of time with TV. “It is possible that the channel will attract those who do not find anything interesting on television,” said MTV Czech and Slovak director Alex Ruzek to Digizone.cz (November 24).

“To me MTV is more than music, is more than television,” said Ms Ruzek to Czech Radio (November 27), it’s an experience, it’s a brand that people identify with, it’s multimedia, it’s not just a TV channel anymore, you can hear the brand on the radio, you can see it on the screen, you can see it at live concerts and events, you can see it in merchandising and on T-shirts, everywhere you look you can see MTV, and I think that’s the strength of that brand.“

Good brand managers know that details are everything. The public’s expectation can be quite high for local franchise launches of international brands. Some details for the MTV Czech and Slovak debut were left wanting: at least one cable operator also wasn’t ready.

“We had a deal with MTV Networks Europe to broadcast the MTV European program,” said Frantisek Malina, spokesperson for cable operator UPC, to Mediafax (December 1). “Negotiations with the Czech edition are in progress, but nothing is definite. This is a business deal between MTV Networks Europe and MTV Czech.”

Thematic branded television channels are sucking in viewers. General interest channels can’t hold viewers because viewers can’t be held to time and place. People surf through 300 channels and ‘just have the TV on’, increasing downward pressure on ad prices. So when a broadcaster has a chance to scoop up a thematic channel attractive to cable or satellite distributors, it sounds like a good deal.

US media conglomerate Viacom (CBS, et.al.) owns MTV Networks and a generous group of related holding and marketing companies. Local franchised licensee own and operate several country-specific MTV channels, like CME’s franchise in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The generic English language MTV European replaced MTV Networks Baltic (November 18) as franchise holder Ananey Communications faced up to tough economic times. MTV Networks Baltic operated local MTV channels in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Ananey Communications is also licensed to operate MTV Israel, not affected by cold economic weather in the Baltics.

Music videos are no longer the dominant MTV programming element. Even less expensive reality shows now fill all but about three hours per day. Those videos that ‘killed the radio star’ are too expensive to produce.

MTV Networks International and MTV Networks North will begin outsourcing all production, reported kress.de (November 26). “This move,” said a spokesperson, “will free up resources to allow greater flexibility in production and procurement and the acquisition of new content from partner production companies.” Most affected, apparently, is MTV Germany production staff based in Berlin.

That MTV library is stuffed, as Ms Ruzek at MTV Czechoslovakia has certainly discovered. CME’s CEO Adrian Sarbu is moving further into the production business, perhaps with some pressure from significant minority shareholder Time Warner. A dispute between Viacom and Time Warner contributed to the delay getting MTV Czech and Slovak together. Hundreds of television channels mean thousands of hours of programming, very little of which is free.

A generation ago, MTV’s founders had a point. Music on television in a simple format, much like radio, could create buzz among viewers pulling away from traditional (read: boring) channels. Hardly ever mentioned is the original MTV business model. All of those videos – at first, at least – were free. Music companies, flush with cash in the early 1980’s and looking for a new hook, produced music videos for promotion hoping television stations would broadcast a few. MTV’s evolution over three decades shows was derived, in a sense, from user-generated content.

Over thirty mostly language specific MTV channels can be found in different parts of the world. The MTV brand is owned by US media company Viacom and is managed by the wholly-owned MTV Networks, which licenses MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and other Viacom specialty television brands. Now pushing 30 years old, the MTV brand channels are meant to appeal to 15 to 24 year old viewers who, arguably, have never been without their MTV. Somebody should write a song and shoot the video.