Last year's VMAs boasted the highest ratings since 2002, bringing in 11.4 million viewers and making it the No. 1 cable telecast of 2010 for the MTV network.
Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen highlighted both Grey and former McKinsey consultant Michael Wolff, whom Freston hired as MTV Network's chief operating officer, as "unusual" hires that might get scrutiny in the near future.
That comes a year after the network launched MTV Overdrive, a multimedia Web site that generates only a small fraction of the traffic that Yahoo!
MTV's high definition network, MHD plans to premiere a new concert every week for the rest of the year.
The network has launched branded MTV channels aimed at Hispanics, college students and numerous overseas markets.
From its beginning, Pittman positioned MTV to be different from any other traditional network out there.
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However the aspects that MTV appropriated were only the most superficial qualities, such as quick cuts and psychedelic colors, which MTV repeated until they were more hackneyed than the worst network series.
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When music television really came along, MTV, it unfortunately took the low route and became home network shopping for record companies and contributed in many ways to denigrate pop music, in my opinion.
Both are publications that watched unheeding as upstarts rolled out MTV, Music TV, and ESPN, the sports TV network, into the media space that the established magazine players had been occupying as pretty much monopolies.
But last week MTV made a strong case for being the first social media juggernaut network.
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The decision not to address the celebrity that comes along with the show was a conscious one by the network, explains Liz Gateley, senior vice president of MTV series development and an executive producer on the show.
Farley might actually have a shot at launching one of these shows at MTV, she noted, because she's been shadowing the network's producers and executives just as much as they've been watching her these past six seasons.
Even if MTV can't make Generation Y a huge voting bloc, Rzepka believes the network can still be influential.
In September, the network's U.K. affiliate plans to launch a new channel called MTV Flux, which will base its programming on stuff viewers submit.
Since 2007, MTV has pioneered the use of Twitter at the VMAs and in 2010, ratings soared as the network integrated social tactics more fully to drive engagement and buzz through Twitter.
Jersey Shore has put MTV back on the map, delivering buzz and ratings for an otherwise buzz- and ratings-challenged cable network.
Last year there was speculation MTV could be removed from Sky's subscription package as Sky re-negotiated its deal to carry the network.
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