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MTV bids adieu to Music Television
The channel is being launched in a whole new avatar this Diwali
MTV has officially dropped 'Music Television' from its name and logo after thirteen years. Music Television has been appearing under the channel's logo since it was launched in the US in1981. From this weekend, the channel will transform itself beyond music and beyond television as well by launching exclusive content for digital.
"We are driven by music but not limited by music," says Ashish Patil, general manager and senior vice-president, creative and content, MTV India. With the revamp, the channel will reduce its music content to 40 per cent and gradually decrease it to 25 per cent.
The channel wants its viewers to graduate from viewers to users. It will be given the look of a webpage, with new graphic post-its, scrolls, buffering of videos, scraps, comments, RSS feeds and pop ups. Patil says that this is a significant move from being a television channel to being a content provider.
The channel will have four new shows – MTV Rant, MTV What the Hack, MTV Acting Classes and Nuon MTV Making the Cut. Of these, only one – Nuon MTV Making the Cut – will be aired on television. The show will be a hunt for the best in fashion and will be aired every Saturday at 6 pm.
MTV Rant will premiere only on mobile phones and will be about tearing apart random issues/news and opinions. MTV What the Hack, a show on hacking and the ways to do it, will be aired on the web (www.mtvindia.com).
MTV Acting Classes will premiere on its voice portal on 5056882 on mobile, where the VJs (video jockeys) will give lessons on acting, dialogue delivery and emoting skills.
The channel is promoting the change on-air across its network channels, apart from youth websites. For its new shows, the channel will undertake radio and below-the-line activities. There will be a contest on the channel to spot the change on-air and give away prizes. However, the tagline, It's My MTV, will stay.