MTV turns 25: What is the new MTV?

MTV recently turned 25. The cultural behemoth has morphed many times since its initial coming out, when it woke up a whole generation to the power of music videos, and played a key role in music discovery and promotion. To this day, there is no underestimating the power of MTV's brand; it's one of the most widely recognized around the globe. However its value and import in the US music market in 2007 remains less than clear. The original MTV audience has become the VH-1 crowd as it has aged. What is clear is the importance of digital media and distribution to MTV's future; indeed the hot topic this year pivots around distribution of digital video on the Net as well as on portable, mobile devices.

So what is the new MTV (if there is one entity)? Arguably you could say it's You Tube -- with the added twist of allowing the consumers not only to become content creators but also to be their own programmers (of a vast catalog of content, branded and user-generated). Or perhaps Joost (formerly known as The Venice Project). But regardless of who it is, the cat's out of the bag in terms of empowering artists and consumers themselves to create, distribute, and program their desired content. This of course is enabled by digital media technologies, sites like You Tube & others, and the fact that this generation (known as "The Millennials") are demanding the ability to do all of those things now.

What's next for MTV itself as a result? In a word. Darwinism -- it must adapt to the needs and demands of this new generation, harness its incredible archival vault & find a way to monetize it, morph in a new direction that the power of their brand allows it to do, or die trying (somehow I don't think the latter will happen). Stay tuned as the MTV (de)-evolution continues.