ITV

Tag: VH1

  • Vh1 brings music festival ‘Vh1 Rock Rules’ from 18 May

    Vh1 brings music festival ‘Vh1 Rock Rules’ from 18 May

    MUMBAI: MTV Networks’ international music and lifestyle channel – Vh1, will be rolling out an international music fiesta with Vh1 Rock Rules, featuring three international bands and 12 local bands.

    The music fiesta will begin 18 May and culminate on 3 June in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
    Apart from the who’s who of Indian rock, the 15-band line-up stars three international bands – Haven (UK), Empire Dogs (Sweden) and a finale from the Aussie band Taxiride.

    While, on the national front, the rock acts includes – Pentagram, Parikrama, Helga’s Fun Castle, Them Clones, Oritus, Nakshatra, Synaps, Parousia, Lounge Piranha, Vayu, Level 9 and Messiah.

    On 18 May, Haven and Helga’s Fun Castle will perform, followed by Empire Dogs and Vayu on 25 May and finally Taxiride and Pentagram will perform on 1 June in Mumbai at Velocity.
    In Delhi, Haven, Nakshatra and Them Clones will perform on 20 May, followed by Empire Dogs, Parikrama and Oritus on 27 May and finally on 3 June Taxiride, Level 9 and Messiah will perform at Elevate.

    On 2 June, Taxiride, Synaps, Parousia and Lounge Piranha will perform in Bangalore at Palace Grounds.

    Last year, Vh1 held Vh1 Hip Hop Hustle, wherein the channel brought in hip hop band Flipsyde as well as two international DJs Noname and Mentat. While the event was restricted to Delhi and Mumbai, Vh1 has now added Bangalore to the tour rock map.

    Vh1 India VP and general manager Keertan Adyanthaya said, “Vh1 Rock Rules is slated to delight rock fanatics in India. We are not only bringing fresh new international talent to India but also providing a platform for Indian rock bands to reach their fans. It’s a clear indication that India is now on the world tour map and Vh1 is playing a major role in fostering this phenomenon.”

  • MTV2 plans to launch in India

    MTV2 plans to launch in India

    MUMBAI: MTV Networks India is expanding its bouquet of channels. The latest to plan an entry into India is MTV2, a channel from the Viacom stable which has a mix of music videos, long form music programmes and a line-up of irreverent, lifestyle and cross platform programming focused on youth and pop culture.

    MTV2 has registered for downlink licence. The other channels in the family which are already operating in India are MTV, Nick and Vh1.

    “We have applied for downlink licence for MTV2. This is in line with our plans to increase the MTV Networks franchise in India,” says MTV Networks India spokesperson.

    As for whether MTV2 would be specifically for direct-to-home (DTH) or be made available on cable TV networks as well, the spokesperson declined to provide further details. “It is too pre-mature to elaborate on our plans at this juncture,” he said.

    That the company was looking at expanding its operations in India was stated earlier by former MTV Networks Asia Pacific president Frank Brown.

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com, he had said, “We are looking at a lot of ideas, including some potential channels for DTH. We are eyeing the launch of new genres of channels. We would like to explore some original channels in India and then probably use it as a test case for launching in other markets.”

  • Vh1 ties up with Big Fish Games & Midway to provide online games

    Vh1 ties up with Big Fish Games & Midway to provide online games

    MUMBAI: Vh1 has announced the launch of Vh1 Games the online gaming destination for gamers, puzzle experts, and pop culture fans. For this initiative, Vh1 has teamed up with the game developer and distributor Big Fish Games and the interactive entertainment software publisher and developer Midway.

    Big Fish Games has been tapped for their expertise in the downloadable game market, game publishing, and merchandising. Through its licensing agreement with Vh1, Midway is providing authentic arcade classic games to the hub.

    “We have created a gaming site that extends the Vh1 brand by playing off of Vh1’s distinct programming,” said Vh1 VP digital media Tina Imm. “Our original games and ‘Vh1 Classic Arcade’ give our viewers and the enormous numbers of casual online gamers a great mix of old and new games, editorial content, and industry news.”

    In addition to a broad collection of word games, action games and puzzles, the Vh1 Games hub offers original games from Vh1, top downloadable games, and popular classic arcade games from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s that are part of Vh1’s on-air and broadband programming.

    Vh1 Games also provides gaming news and commentary through its dedicated blog, ‘Vh1 Game Break’. Vh1 Games introduces the ‘Vh1 Classic Arcade’– a collection of authentic online versions of old-school arcade classics like Spy Hunter, Joust, Defender, and Rampage.

    In the classic arcade section of the site, the games will be packaged together with editorial content relevant to the time when these games were originally released.

    Vh1 Games also offers original games based on Vh1’s hit TV shows and pop culture, as well as classic-inspired games including Vh1’s new mini-game compilation, The Arcade Strikes Back. Vh1’s original games include titles such as Escape the Paparazzi, Sudoku Fortunes and I Love Toys.

    Players can download one hour trials of the games or purchase the full versions for $19.99.

  • Dave Sibley is MTV Australia MD

    Dave Sibley is MTV Australia MD

    MUMBAI: MTV Asia-Pacific president Nigel Robbins has announced that Dave Sibley is MTV Australia MD.

    Sibley will be responsible for leading the charge of MTV and VH1’s businesses in both the pay television and digital media worlds throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as sit on the board for Nickelodeon Australia, a joint venture between MTV and XYZ Entertainment. Sibley takes up this post in July.

    Sibley has a decade of service with MTV International, having most recently served as senior VP and GM, international marketing partnerships in London. In this role, he pioneered the marketing partnerships model, a concept born of Sibley’s belief in the need for a more creative and innovative approach to client engagement with brand media. MTV is now acknowledged across the globe as a leader in this field.

    Robbins says, “Dave’s leadership history with MTV Networks makes him an ideal choice to take the charge and continue to develop our businesses in Australia and New Zealand, as well as capitalize upon the brands’ momentum and growth. With MTV’s profile at an all time high and VH1’s growing fan base, Dave’s appointment comes at not only an exciting time for our company but a high-growth period for the pay television industry as a whole.”

    Sibley says, “To take the reins of a business as robust as MTV Networks Australia during this time of growth is a real thrill, and I’m very excited about helping further the connection MTV and VH1 have with their audiences, advertisers and business partners. MTV now has truly established itself in Australia as the premier brand for youth, thanks to the commitment of a very talented team. I’m looking forward to capitalizing on this trajectory and taking our businesses to the next level of growth.”

    Sibley will report directly to Robbins and be based at the company’s Sydney headquarters.

  • VH1 & Sundance to air documentary series on drug use

    VH1 & Sundance to air documentary series on drug use

    MUMBAI: VH1 partners with Sundance Channel for a four-part documentary about illicit drug use in America and its impact on popular culture.

    The Drug Years is based on the book Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, by Martin Torgoff. It premieres on 12 June on VH1, with repeat telecast on Sundance beginning from 16 June. It spans from the 1950s to the present and uses archival footage and interviewed to show how music, movies, television and theater were affected by the rise in drug use.

    The first episode, Break on Through focuses on the period from the 1950s to 1967, when artistic and social subcultures embraced marijuana and LSD use. The second episode, Feed Your Head, covers 1967 to 1971, when film and television content began to address drug use in America. The third installment, Teenage Wasteland, explores the years from 1972 to 1979, marked by the popularity of High Times magazine, drug humor by comedians like George Carlin and the emergence of Cocaine as the celebrity drug of choice. The last episode, Just Say No, takes viewers from 1980 to now.

    Produced by Hart Perry and Dana Heinz Perry, who has delivered titles such as Imagining America: Icons of 20th Century Art and the Peabody Award-winning John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen.

  • MTV, VHI US go Pink in association with Honda

    MTV, VHI US go Pink in association with Honda

    MUMBAI: MTV and VH1 in the US will paint their broadband and mobile platforms Pink with content from an exclusive flashmob concert in New York City with platinum-selling
    LaFace/Zomba artist Pink. The concert footage features music from Pink’s latest album, I’m Not Dead.

    The concert was the result of a contest launched last year in conjunction with Honda and its advertising agency RPA to promote the launch of the 2006 Honda Civic. MTV and VH1 worked with Honda to develop the extensive 12-week Honda Civic Under The Hood campaign featuring a series of music-based interstitials that drove viewers to various media platforms to enter their zip codes, giving the region with the most entries a “flashmob” concert by a national music artist.

    VH1 and MTV joined forces for the first time ever in creating a cross-channel multiplatform campaign that amplified the reach of the networks’ live music franchises to support the launch of the 2006 Honda Civic.

    On 5 April, text messages and emails went out to contest entrants informing them of the Pink “flashmob” concert in New York that evening. The first 200 to respond to the message won access to the event at Crobar. Pink Across All VH1 and MTV Platforms

    From tomorrow 13 April, footage from the exclusive concert, including full songs from Pink’s performance will be available on VH1 and MTV’s broadband channels VSpot (vspot.vh1.com) and Overdrive (overdrive.mtv.com).

    Fans will also be able to enjoy video clips of the concert on MTV Mobile and VH1 Mobile cross-carrier. Pink appeared on MTV’s Total Request Live the day of the concert and upon her exit took a few of the members of the audience and escorted them to the show. In addition, a half-hour version of the concert will air on MTV on 14 April.

    VH1 will also produce a video podcast interview with Pink that will be available for download on VH1.com and iTunes.

  • MTV US president Van Toffler highlights the importance of short form videos during CTIA keynote

    MTV US president Van Toffler highlights the importance of short form videos during CTIA keynote

    MUMBAI: In his keynote address at the CTIA Wireless 2006 event in the US, MTV Music Group president Van Toffler highlighted the appeal of short-form video from the MTV, VH1, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo and Spike TV brands on the wireless platform.

    He described the mobile platform as a rich, creative medium for new and emerging talent to connect with and cultivate new audiences.

    To underscore that point, Toffler welcomed recording artist LL Cool J, to the stage. LL offered an advance look at an upcoming episode of MTV’s Life & Rhymes, which chronicles his life as an artist and is set to debut tonight 10 April on MTV, MTV’s broadband channel Overdrive and on MTV Mobile.

    Toffler noted that audiences have increasingly embraced MTV Networks’ diverse array of mobile programming. Last month MTV Networks streamed nearly 2.5 million videos cross-carrier, an all-time high, Toffler reported, adding that the number is growing by nearly 40 per cent month-to-month for the first three months of 2006.

    He says, “Our audience is responding in droves to our mobile programming. They have a personal relationship with our brands and they increasingly want to consume our content on the handset, the new ‘holy grail’ of electronic
    devices.”

    LL Cool J echoed that sentiment saying, “The mobile phone helps me establish closer ties with my fans, connect with new ones and hopefully inspire everyone I touch through my music. The cell phone — which has become
    the accessory for today’s young adults — is one way that helps me reach them.”

    Among the varied types of mobile programming driving audience consumption are music videos, comedy segments, user-generated content, scenes from television shows, ‘after shows’ developed exclusively for mobile, never-
    before-seen outtakes, and short art breaks, also known as “sharts,” featuring animated and live-action segments.

    In many respects, the burgeoning mobile
    platform is a return to MTV Networks’ early roots, when MTV gained significant
    notoriety for the five- and 15-second art breaks created by brilliant, young talent and which lived between the music videos. For the MTVN Music Group, which encompasses the CMT, MTV and VH1 brands, three types of programming — extensions of on-air franchises; made-for-mobile episodes; and music — are all performing well on the mobile platform.

    Extensions of On-air Franchises
    VH1’s Flavour of Love, the most successful show in that channel’s history, was also the most popular VH1 Mobile content in February
    and March.
    — Web Junk 20 also on VH1 and VH1 Mobile, ushered in the user-generated era to TV and simultaneously to mobile phones.

    — MTV will showcase a 20-year-old college student’s visual interpretation using stick figures based on the lyrics of Fall Out
    Boy’s Sugar We’re Going Down, representing original user-generated content.
    — VH1 is debuting Dingo Ate My Video, a made-for-mobile series that combines VH1’s comedic voice with music videos from a wide
    range of artists, including Green Day, Missy Elliot, Jewel and others.
    — Country Music Television soon will debut a made-for-mobile reality series called Road Hammers about a southern rock/blues band trying to make it in the music business.

    MTV adds that labels and artists like LL Cool J increasingly are embracing the mobile platform to connect with fans and institute new marketing paradigms.
    The Arctic Monkey’s new video I Bet You Look Good on the Dance floor made its debut on: mtvU, MTV’s network for college students; mtvU’s Uber broadband network; mtvU.com and mtvU wireless.

    The approach mirrored a similar one taken by VH1 last year, which debuted Te Amo Corazon, the new Prince single, on VH1, VH1’s
    VSPOT broadband channel, and VH1 Mobile. The Prince debut marked the world’s first-ever multimedia, multiplatform worldwide
    exclusive premiere.
    — Prior to releasing her latest single and album, Madonna distributed an exclusive ringtone for Hung Upon MTV Mobile and VH1 Mobile.

    Spike TV is delivering the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s ‘Ultimate Fight Night(TM) Live’ to Amp’d Mobile subscribers tonight.
    This represents the first time the live sporting event is being simulcast to both mobile devices and to television subscribers.

    “The wireless platform is as important to us as television and computer screens. As soon as we start developing a new concept, we think beyond the television. We think of how that idea can live on broadband and mobile” Toffler says.

  • Vh1 to launch two new shows in April

    Vh1 to launch two new shows in April

    MUMBAI: Vh1 will be reliving the days of yore with classic videos and shows this April. Also, MTV favourite Headbanger’s Ball will air not only old favourites but also the latest headbanging bands. A new hip hop destination Hip Hop Hustle ensures that viewers get their weekly dose of bump ‘n’ grind.

    Vh1 India vice president and general manager Keertan Adyanthaya said, “Our viewers have been requesting us to show more classic on Vh1 so we’ve decided to surpass their wildest dreams and make this month all about classic. Introducing Headbanger’s Ball and Hip Hop Hustle will give lovers of a certain genre a fixed destination to go to every week on the channel.”

    Every Big Weekend will have a theme like Classic Rock, Classic Pop, Classic Dance and Classic Hollywood setting the tone for all the rest of the week. So viewers can not only see videos but also shows such as Rolling Stones Live in Brazil as part of Classic Rock, Driven: Whitney Houston in Classic Pop, When Disco Ruled The World in Classic Dance and When Star Wars Ruled The World in Classic Hollywood.

    The one-hour non-stop music block Headbanger’s Ball will have some of the greatest new and old heavy metal acts – Korn, Iron Maiden, System Of A Down, Black Sabbath and loads more. Headbanger’s Ball will be telecast every Friday at midnight from 7 April onwards.

    For hip hop lovers, there’s Hip Hop Hustle, a 60-minute on-air version of the successful property of the same name which saw Vh1 India bring in US hip hop band Flipsyde late last year. With the top selling international records in India last year being from 50 Cents and Mariah Carey respectively, both hip hop artistes, it’s clear that hip hop is having the same kind of success in India as it is in the US and worldwide. Hip Hop Hustle will air every Saturday at 10 pm starting 15 April.

  • Paramount Pictures to premiere ‘M:i:III’ trailer across MTV Networks

    Paramount Pictures to premiere ‘M:i:III’ trailer across MTV Networks

    MUMBAI: Paramount Pictures will premiere an exclusive look at this summer’s most highly anticipated action-thriller, Mission: Impossible III (M:i:III) as Tom Cruise introduces the new trailer across MTV Networks on 16 March.

    The trailer will air simultaneously on MTV, MTV2, VH1, CMT, BET and Spike TV on 16 March, one day before it runs in any movie theater. The exclusive material will also be available on the internet at mtv.com, mtv2.com, vh1.com, cmt.com, spiketv.com, and at iFilm.

    The film, starring Tom Cruise and directed by J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and Alias, opens in theaters in the US on 5 May 2006.

    Paramount Pictures president of worldwide motion picture marketing Gerry Rich said, “Tom and J.J. have come through with an amazing action movie and we think viewers across MTV networks will agree that M:i:III is the first must-see event film of the summer. When you’ve got the goods, it’s exciting to be able to share it with the audience in a special way. We’re thrilled to be pulling out all the stops with our partners at the MTV Networks.”

    Cruise returns as special agent Ethan Hunt, who faces the mission of his life in Mission: Impossible III. Abrams brings his unique blend of action and drama to the billion-dollar franchise.

  • VH1 announces online pop culture exam

    VH1 announces online pop culture exam

    MUMBAI: On 29 March, pop culture fans throughout the US will have a chance to test their talents online and qualify for VH1 and Entertainment Weekly’s upcoming televised
    competition The World Series of Pop Culture.

    The PCIQ exam is a standardized test designed to measure pop culture knowledge in the areas of television, movies, music, and pop culture news. Three of the top scorers from the online exam will join forces and become the 16th and final ‘wildcard’ team in the tournament. The ‘wildcard’ team will join the 15 other teams cast during in-person regional qualifiers.

    The exam will consist of six sections including pop culture analogies, quote identification, lyric identification, and actor/actress body of work identification. Each section will contain ten questions. Contestants will be given six minutes to complete each section.

    For instance one question could be to identify this quote from a film. “You know how they say we only use 10 per cent of our brains? I think we only use 10 per cent of our hearts.”
    The choices are Wedding Crashers, Hitch, 50 First Dates and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.