MTV Networks UK and Ireland is bringing the curtain down on its VH2 music channel and replacing it with a new user-generated, audience-scheduled proposition called MTV Flux.
The move reflects not only how the alternative music featured on VH2 has become move mainstream since the channel launched in 2003, but how MTV believes its viewers are changing too, demanding more control over what they watch.
The Viacom-owned company's plan for an audience-driven channel was revealed at the Edinburgh International Television Festival last August by Michiel Bakker, executive VP and MD of UK, Eire and Nordic.
Bakker said the project, then known as MyMTV, would take the place of existing channel MTV Hits, allowing viewers to vote on tracks and interact with one another via an integrated website, plus create animated versions of themselves that could also represent them on the TV screen.
The revamp of MTV Hits never happened, but the ideas behind MyMTV are now being carried through in the creation of MTV Flux, which will replace VH2 later this year, with the latter channel's content migrating to VH1 and MTV2.
"The launch of MTV Flux ushers in a new era in user-generated content and adds a whole new dimension to the concept of social networking," said Angel Gambino, MTV Networks UK and Ireland VP of commercial strategy and digital media.
As well as being able to influence the playlist of MTV Flux, budding artists will be able to share their creations by uploading them to the Flux website in much the same as with MySpace. MTV was in the running to acquire that business, which has become the world's biggest social networking site, but was outbid by R. Murdoch's News Corp last year.MTV puts VH2 into ''Flux''
26.07.2006
MTV Networks UK and Ireland is bringing the curtain down on its VH2 music channel and replacing it with a new user-generated, audience-scheduled proposition called MTV Flux.
The move reflects not only how the alternative music featured on VH2 has become move mainstream since the channel launched in 2003, but how MTV believes its viewers are changing too, demanding more control over what they watch.
The Viacom-owned company's plan for an audience-driven channel was revealed at the Edinburgh International Television Festival last August by Michiel Bakker, executive VP and MD of UK, Eire and Nordic.
Bakker said the project, then known as MyMTV, would take the place of existing channel MTV Hits, allowing viewers to vote on tracks and interact with one another via an integrated website, plus create animated versions of themselves that could also represent them on the TV screen.
The revamp of MTV Hits never happened, but the ideas behind MyMTV are now being carried through in the creation of MTV Flux, which will replace VH2 later this year, with the latter channel's content migrating to VH1 and MTV2.
"The launch of MTV Flux ushers in a new era in user-generated content and adds a whole new dimension to the concept of social networking," said Angel Gambino, MTV Networks UK and Ireland VP of commercial strategy and digital media.
As well as being able to influence the playlist of MTV Flux, budding artists will be able to share their creations by uploading them to the Flux website in much the same as with MySpace. MTV was in the running to acquire that business, which has become the world's biggest social networking site, but was outbid by R. Murdoch's News Corp last year.
