MTV.com (formerly known in 1995 as MTV Online) is a website owned and developed by MTV. The website previously served as an online portal for MTV content, and offered online games, video streaming, radio streaming and individual websites for each show it broadcasts. It now promotes the MTV Online mobile app which replaced it (websites for its sister networks aren't affected). MTV.com has received positive critical reaction and various awards, including an MTV Music nickname called MTV Hive on launch in October 2008. Positive praise has also been received because of the steps taken by the website to protect user privacy. Visits to the domain outside the United States are redirected to YTV in Canada or to the domestic network site of the visiting IP's nation or region due to programming licensing issues between territories.
History
MTV.com in 2008
In the late 1980s, before the World Wide Web, MTV VJ Adam Curry began experimenting on the Internet. He registered the then-unclaimed domain name "MTV.com" in 1993 with the idea of being MTV's unofficial new voice on the Internet. Although this move was sanctioned by his supervisors at MTV Networks at the time, when Curry left to start his own web-portal design and hosting company, MTV subsequently sued him for the domain name, which led to an out-of-court settlement.[1]
The service hosted at the domain name was originally branded "MTV Online" during MTV's first few years of control over it in the mid-1990s. It served as a counterpart to the America Online portal for MTV content, which existed at AOL keyword MTV until approximately the end of the 1990s. After this time, the website became known as simply "MTV.com" and served as the Internet hub for all MTV and MTV News content.
MTV.com experimented with entirely video-based layouts between 2005 and 2007. The experiment began in April 2005 as MTV Overdrive, a streaming video service that supplemented the regular MTV.com website.[2] Shortly after the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, which were streamed on MTV.com and heavily used the MTV Overdrive features, MTV introduced a massive change for MTV.com, transforming the entire site into a Flash video-based entity.[3] Much of users' feedback about the Flash-based site was negative, demonstrating a dissatisfaction with videos that played automatically, commercials that could not be skipped or stopped, and the slower speed of the entire website. The experiment ended in February 2007 as MTV.com reverted to a traditional HTML-based website design with embedded video clips, in the style of YouTube and some other video-based websites.[4]
From 2006 to 2007, MTV operated an online channel, MTV International, targeted to the broad international market. The purpose of the online channel was to air commercial-free music videos once the television channels started concentrating on shows unrelated to music videos or music-related programming.
The channel responded to the rise of the Internet as the new central place to watch music videos in October 2008 by launching MTV Music (later called MTV Hive), a website that featured thousands of music videos from MTV and VH1's video libraries, dating back to the earliest videos from 1981.
A newly created division of the company, MTV New Media, announced in 2008 that it would produce its own original web series, in an attempt to create a bridge between old and new media.[5] The programming is available to viewers via personal computers, cell phones, iPods, and other digital devices.[6]
In the summer of 2012, MTV launched a music discovery website called the MTV Artists Platform (also known as Artists.MTV). MTV explained, "While technology has made it way easier for artists to produce and distribute their own music on their own terms, it hasn't made it any simpler to find a way to cut through all the Internet noise and speak directly to all of their potential fans. The summer launch of the platform is an attempt to help music junkies and musicians close the gap by providing a one-stop place where fans can listen to and buy music and purchase concert tickets and merchandise."[7]
MTV.com remains the official website of MTV, and it expands on the channel's broadcasts by bringing additional content to its viewers. In 2022, it was revised to mostly focus on direct consumers to content on Paramount+ and Pluto TV. The site featured an online version of MTV News and podcasts. It has TV Everywhere authenticated streaming. The news site is defunct but still can be accessed with prior movie features, profiles and interviews with recording artists and from MTV's television programs. A related MTV app was available on mobile platforms and connected TV devices.
References
- ↑ "MTV vs. Curry".
- ↑ "MTV today announced the launch of the new hybrid channel, "MTV Overdrive"".
- ↑ "MTV switches to Adobe Flash-based website".
- ↑ "MTV.com returns to HTML-based website".
- ↑ Wallenstein, Andrew. "MTV signs ‘Hustle’ director to Web series", The Hollywood Reporter, August 21, 2008.
- ↑ "MTV, Craig Brewer team up for online drama", Commercial Appeal, July 10, 2008.
- ↑ "MTV To Launch Artists.MTV Music Hub", MTV News, March 15, 2012.
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