The MTV Networks has been aggressively pursuing the development of online properties. At this time they have 230 microsites, with their eyes on creating many more.
Included with those microsites are five virtual worlds that tie into some of their TV shows or brands.
In a unique twist they're now looking at taking some of the avatars from their virtual worlds and bringing them into their linear TV programming. The companyis trying to become a "multiplatform company" that integrates their TV and digital elements together.
MTVN Global Digital Media President Mika Salmi, who sold Atom Entertainment to MTVN in 2006, said at the Goldman Sachs Internet Conference in Las Vegas that the goals of the company are to launch even more microsites and linking them into digital platforms.
The strategy of MTVN, according to Salmi, is to attract younger customers to a number of different niche microsites and not only one.
All of this comes from the decline in young viewers on MTV, whose core base has aged to the point where they want different content then when they were younger. Of course that desired content doesn't fit into what young people want today. So the company is working from there to build out new properties to attract younger viewers.
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