Judy McGrath
Photo Credit: Scott Gries
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At today's CTAM Summit, Judy McGrath suggested that there will be a number of MTV Networks announcements in the near future that will deal with the digital media space.
According to McGrath, they are looking to launch similar services as YouTube because "video is our expertise...We're looking at acquisitions and builders." She also added that YouTube has created a "new definition of social video, if you look at a chart [of the growth of user-generated content] it's like a hockey stick," she said.
It's hard to know if this is something that will work for MTV or not. The reason isn't because there isn't growth in digital, but if they've waited too long.
News everywhere is that MTV is starting to be considered the "old" network by young people. This is a huge problem that will have to be tackled and answered if MTV is to be considered something attractive to this young generation.
This is one of those stories that will probably be a bellweather for the rest of the industry. A lot is riding on the outcome of what happens to MTV in the digital space as far as young people are concerned. Simply putting something online will be nowhere near enough to change things. They aren't branded to this young generation in any way.
They will have to answer question in people's minds on why they should interact with them online simply because it's there. It's not a question of whether can grab some eyeballs, they'll do that to some degree; it's more of a question on how they are going to differentiate in a compelling way that will make it worthwhile to clickthrough to see what's going on.
I think that this is going to be a lot harder for them than they could ever imagine.
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