MTV Nets encircle the Web with slate of sites

A new hub for Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" headlines a slate of two dozen targeted Web sites that Viacom's MTV Networks will launch by the first quarter as it continues its "vertical" digital strategy.

TheDailyShow.com, which launches in the fourth quarter, will archive the entire video history of the show including headlines, interviews and the "Back in Black" feature. The portal also will present the previous evening's episode in its entirety an hour or two after its broadcast.

The launch comes on the heels of an estimated $75 million deal between Comedy Central and the creators of "South Park" that includes the creation of SouthParkStudios.com (HR 8/28). The site launched this year and will relaunch in the first quarter as part of an unprecedented production deal for the duo, which will see them split online ad revenue from the show with Viacom.

Comedy Central's "The Sarah Silverman Program," MTV's "Engaged and Underage" and Nickelodeon's "iCarly" also will get new sites.

The sites are the latest in MTVN's strategy in the online arena, which establishes individual destinations for shows and related subject matters instead of a centralized site. The new portals will bring the worldwide total of MTVN Web sites to more than 300 destinations by year's end.


"We're accelerating it across the company," said Mika Salmi, president of global digital media at MTVN. "It's worked very well and advertisers like it because they can expand their reach in a very targeted manner."

The sites join a growing list of targeted Web sites that the Viacom property has launched in the past year in conjunction with its TV shows. Other sites include Comedy Central's Indecision2008.com, MTV's YoMomma.TV and SuperSweet16.com and VH1's BestWeekEver.TV.

Traffic across MTVN's properties has increased from 76 million unique visitors in January to 91 million visitors in July, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Brian Graden, president of entertainment for the MTVN Music Group, said that the verticals for VH1's "Best Week Ever" and MTV's "The Real World" have been particularly successful. He said the company has no plans to abandon any of the verticals yet, but he mentioned that it is still early to decide for a lot of them.

"You need four to six months before you say 'I think I've got something,' " Graden said. "For a lot of these, we're aiming for them to outlast the show."

He mentioned that the site for "Super Sweet 16" as an example of a vertical that would still be relevant even if the show were off the air.

Overall, Graden and Salmi said they were happy with the verticals. Salmi said that the strategy of having a large volume of Web properties complements the way most people use the Internet.

"Consumers, on the whole, use search to find what they want on the Web," Salmi said. "By having these verticals, we work well with that type of behavior. We see a lot of time spent and people getting deeper into the experience."

The company also will launch a teen girl gaming site, the N's the-Ngames.com, and a site for video game cheats and hints, WikiCheats.com. This follows MTVN's announcement last month that the network will commit more than $500 million to its digital gaming business during the next two years.

The company also is launching more niche sites ranging from hip-hop dance to stand-up comedy to gay-focused animation. VH1EyeCandy.com, a pop culture site that debuted in beta mode last month, also will fully launch.

MTVN's international group will see a boosted online presence as well. The company will present a Web site for November's MTV Europe Awards and other targeted sites throughout the continent. MTV Japan and Southeast Asia also will get new sites as will the Video Music Awards Latin America.

Also on Thursday, an MTV spokesman confirmed that Viacom's Brand Solutions cross-platform sales unit has been dissolved. Lisa McCarthy, the executive vp at the head of that unit is leaving the company along with her No. 2 in command, senior vp Marc Weinhouse. The remaining nine staffers will be absorbed into MTVN's three sales unit.

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Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2007: Contract or competition?

There has been some squabbling going on on SRGMP these days. And it has been over the surprise inclusion of the two regional SRGMP winners into the contest - Aneek Dhar (Bengal) and Abhijit (Maharashtra).

Vishal and Shekhar got an early earful of one of those singers - Aneek - and they decided this was well and good with them. They really believe that Aneek would raise the stakes for the show. Ismail Darbar - on the other hand - refused to acknowledge that these winners could be given direct entry into the agnipariksha. Now, I do agree with Ismail Darbar but this jhagda sounds fake and unnecessary.

First, this is a contractual issue for ZeeTV. It has to be sorted out with them - and if the gurus didn't know the format or rules, its the producers' bad for not informing them beforehand. But particularly excruciating was the way Darbar went about his business - by throwing darts at the two hapless contestants who were working really hard and turning in excellent performances.

Finally, in a rather comical but delightfully watchable sankat ki ghadi, the House of Reshammiya begged Darbar for a personal favor. Darbar relented trying to make a confounding connection between his granting of the favor and "Aap Ka Suroor" becoming a hit. And both kids were in.

This is good because Aneek can really rock the house with his voice. And his caps are beginning to grow on me. We also got a look at his head (lots of hair you suspicious people) when he opened the show with the entire Rock gharana. Note to Aneek: there can be only one cap on the stage and you know whose head is going to be wearing that!

Also a quick note on Poonam Yadav, who after Sarika (whose exit was predicted by a reader) remains the strongest among the female contenders. Its ballsy to take on Shilpa Rao's smooth and powerful rendition of "Tose Naina Laage". But not only did she take that chance, but sang with such confidence and pleasure that even though she was found wanting, it sounded good and you felt like rooting for her.

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Clay Aiken Gets Shoved By Woman On A Plane!

What a bitch! And I mean him.

Clay Aiken was involved in an airplane disturbance with another passenger Saturday while en route to Tulsa International Airport.

The dispute on a Continental Airlines flight took place between Aiken, who was traveling Saturday morning to a performance at the Brady Theater, and a woman, the Tulsa World reported for Sunday’s editions.

Concertgoers who attended the former “American Idol” singer’s show said afterward that Aiken joked on-stage about being beaten up by a girl earlier in the day.

FBI Special Agent Gary Johnson said there was a dispute between a male passenger and a woman on the flight but could not confirm the passenger was Aiken. He said

the dispute was over the male passenger’s foot resting on the woman’s armrest. He said there was an allegation the woman gave the male passenger a “minor shove” during the argument.

“At that point the flight crew was able to resolve the situation,” Johnson said.
Tulsa Airport Authority spokeswoman Alexis Higgins said the passengers were held until FBI agents arrived to interview them. No injuries were reported and no arrests were made.

Aiken was runner-up on the TV talent show “American Idol” in 2003.

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Lost Finale Review -- If you stopped watching, come back

This isn’t going to be one of our normal format recaps. Mostly because trying to summarize all two hours of plot would be more than a little ridiculous, especially considering how dense this two-hour episode was. But I wanted to post and say this:

After tonight’s episode, Lost is back.

This was, from beginning to end, the kind of episode they’ve needed to be doing all season. Everything, from the early explosion-based action sequence to the act break fake-outs to the tragic sequences to that absolutely phenomenal ending conversation was done exceptionally well. Even Matthew Fox, who has become such a grating actor this year, did a fantastic job with his character. I guess Jack just works better when he’s supposed to be whiny.

But it was that ending that really sold it for me. It was one of those situations where I started thinking, about mid-way through the second hour, how cool it would be if it turned out to be a flashback from the future, with Jack living a shitty life after being rescued from the island. And they kept building and building toward something, but I was skeptical that they’d do something as neat and far-reaching and twisty as that, especially given their tendency to end seasons with shots of ladders.

But they did it. They did it exactly like they should have.

It’s against my better judgement, but I am now absolutely looking forward to this show’s return. This was, as two hours of television, up there as some of the best of the year. It was far better than the Heroes finale and it stands alone, I think — barring some annoying tics, like that stupid eyepatch wearing guy who will not die –, as a creative, exciting and satisfying piece of sci fi writing.

And you know what it was, mostly? What made this interesting while most other episodes this season have just been bland? It was the sense of urgency — the desire these characters had to escape this damn island. It’s something we haven’t actually felt from them for a long time, and it seems like such a small thing, but without it we’re just left with a bunch of characters living on some fucked up island we can’t really relate to.

But everyone can relate to wanting to go home.

Welcome back, Lost. Now just don’t fuck it up next season.

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