MTV Continues To Regionalise

MTV Europe has announced details of its further regionalisation throughout mainland Europe and the UK. The second phase of its strategy will see programming, production and key support personnel transferring from the London headquarters to the increasingly self-sufficient regions. Ultimately, total responsibility will be given to the regions for marketing, advertising sales, human resources and production. This should result in an increase in original programming. There are likely to be 80 redundancies in London as a result of the regional expansion; according to MTV this will be offset by the appointment of an additional 150 people throughout the regions.

There is also to be a division of MTV’s Northern service into separate feeds for Holland, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. M2, MTV Networks’ ‘free-form’ music video channel will also launch in Scandinavia during the second quarter of 1998 and then roll-out into the UK and other key European markets.

According Brent Hansen, president and chief executive of MTV and VH-1 Europe, the company’s launch of four new MTV services in Europe sees it “now reaping the benefits in terms of a significant rise in ratings and revenue for MTV in each of these regions.”

MTV Networks Europe: 0171 478 6612