Media

As MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) ad execs begin meeting with marketers and media buyers for this year’s upfront, the Viacom unit is putting some finishing touches on reshaping its digital team. Later this morning, MTVN will announce that Suzanne McDonnell (image, left) will lead the Digital Fusion unit, while Heather Hopkins will...

With online ad spending slowly coming back from last year’s weakness, MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) hopes to see a further boost in revenues by adding deeper ad targeting across its vast 200 websites. The Viacom unit has been testing a variety of audience monitors for most of the past year and it...

MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) CEO Judy McGrath says the Viacom unit’s organic growth is “great,” despite its continued signs of weakness as detailed last week in parent company Viacom’s Q4 earnings. The company was hit by the soft ad market as well as lower sales of Rock...

Viacom (NYSE: VIA), which has seen sales of its Rock Band franchise slow amid the gaming slump, is asking for a refund on its 2007 earnout payment to the Harmonix founders, according to a company 10-K filed earlier today. In October 2006, Harmonix, developer of the Rock Band franchise,...

Viacom’s profits rose significantly in Q4, as the company posted modest revenue and advertising declines, beating analysts’ expectations. Global ad revenues fell 3 percent, while U.S. ad dollars slipped 4 percent, held down by slight weakness in the Media Networks and Filmed Entertainment segments. The Media Networks’ operating income grew 3 percent to $921 million...

The groundwork has already been laid and now it’s official: RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) is spinning off music service Rhapsody in the hopes of giving both companies a better chance at success. Real will reduce its interest in the Rhapsody America joint venture to below 50 percent to match Viacom’s, giving up...

The amount raised by the Hope For Haiti Now telethon stands at more than $61 million, organizers announced late Monday, up from the preliminary figure of $58 million and likely to keep growing as proceeds from multimedia sales and more donations come in. Nielsen Media Research estimates that...

Music games sales’ tempo may be slowing - but that’s only because instrument ownership is nearing saturation - and anyway, songs bought within titles like Rock Band and Guitar Hero are flying off virtual shelves, MTV’s games SVP Paul DeGooyer told me at the Midem music conference.

“Certainly, music games have cooled substantially,” DeGooyer, who manages...

A stunning number of networks, sites, cable ops and mobile carriers came together Friday night to distribute the Hope for Haiti Now telethon, raising at least $58 million just that day, according to preliminary numbers via CNN. Repeatedly during the two-hour event, viewers were reminded that helping Haiti is an ongoing effort...

Tuesday night, CNN raised more than $7 million for Haitian relief during an quickly planned telethon on Larry King Live. That was small compared to the massive effort led by George Clooney and MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) will reach across the world. Star-studded telethon Help for Haiti Now will air live...

Premium entertainment network Epix is having a good week after a distribution drought. Cable operator Mediacom Communications plans to launch the multi-platform network to its subs in April. No details, though. As was the case earlier this week with the Cox Communications deal, neither company is saying how many households will get the network, how...