MTV New Strategy: User-Generated Web Content

MTV New Strategy: User-Generated Web Content

In an attempt to reconnect with young audiences that have drifted from the channel recently, MTV will begin to roll out series that showcase the best of the Web, require heavy viewer participation and feature the lives of real teens, reports The Los Angeles Times.

 

The key for MTV will be developing shows that will drive viewers to spend time on series-related online games, in Web communities or on cellphones coughing up jokes of the day.

 

All shows will have a heavy digital component working in conjunction with the show. Casting for "The Real World," for example, will take place entirely online; "My Super Sweet 16," which chronicles extravagant birthday bashes, will soon feature home videos from MTV viewers that will account for a significant portion of the on-air episodes."

 

MTV isn't the only outlet having trouble keeping the young demographic satisfied these days. Over the last year and a half, once-powerful teen magazines, including Teen People, YM, Teen and Elle Girl, have folded.