NEW YORK, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Fueled by rich music programming for
nearly every genre, MTV Networks Music Group saw unique visitors to its
MTV.com (http://www.mtv.com), VH1.com (http://www.vh1.com), CMT.com
(http://www.cmt.com) and portfolio of music destinations surge in the first
three months of 2008, while other sites - including Yahoo! Music and MySpace
Music - stumbled, according to newly released figures from comScore Media
Metrics. In addition, MTVN's Music Group now ranks #1 for total time spent by
visitors to any music destination on the Web.
Uniques Surge:
The MTVN Music Group saw average monthly unique visitors for Q1 2008 jump
18.7 percent over Q1 2007, while average monthly uniques for Yahoo! Music and
MySpace Music fell 11.7 percent and 8 percent, respectively, for the same time
period.
Driving MTVN Music Group's strong performances were the MTV.com, VH1.com
and CMT.com music brands. From March '07 to March '08, unique visitors jumped
30 percent at MTV.com, 32 percent at VH1.com and 5.5 percent at CMT.com,
according to the independent comScore data.
The March '08 numbers represent the second-best performance of the MTVN
Music Group, behind September 2007, which set records around the MTV Video
Music Awards.
MTVN Music Group is now the third most-trafficked music destination on the
Web, according to comScore, ahead of ArtistDirect (#4) and MySpace Music
(now #5).
#1 in Total Time Spent:
In addition to seeing a surge of new unique visitors, MTVN's Music Group
also finished Q1 2008 as the #1 destination in terms of total time spent - a
key measure of audience engagement.
Visitors spent more than 315 million minutes on MTVN's music sites in
March - more than any other music destination on the Web and three times the
total minutes spent on MySpace Music and nearly 32 percent more than Yahoo!
Music. (The MTVN Music Group also ranked #1 for time spent in January 2008.)
Rich Music Programming Fuels Growth:
Among the major music drivers for Q1 2008 were:
-- The exclusive premiere on Viacom properties MTV, VH1 and BET of Mariah
Carey's "Touch My Body," the first single from her much-anticipated new
album, E=MC2. The model proved so successful that the MTV, VH1 and BET
brands jointly premiered Usher's new single, "Love In This Club"
earlier this month.
-- The exclusive MTV music video premieres of Danity Kane's "Damaged" and
Day26's "Got Me Going," along with exclusive audio streams of the
groups' new albums a week before their retail availability. Both
projects from the winners of the wildly popular "Making the Band"
series debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart, reinforcing MTV's
ability to mint new artists.
-- VH1.com video premieres, exclusive online performances and advance
album streams of VH1 "You Oughta Know" artists Sara Bareilles, Leona
Lewis and Ingrid Michaelson, as well as full-length online episodes of
"VH1 Storytellers: Snoop Dogg," "VH1 Storytellers: Mary J. Blige" and
VH1 Soul's "SoulStage: Erykah Badu."
-- CMT video premieres, including Carrie Underwood's "All American Girl,"
Taylor Swift's "Picture to Burn" and "I'm Only Me When I'm With You,"
Sugarland's "Life In A Northern Town," and Trace Adkins' "You're Gonna
Miss This," along with massive viewer interest in the weeks leading up
to the annual CMT Music Awards show, which airs live from Nashville at
8 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. CT on Monday, April 14.
MTVN Music Group's constellation of sites include: MTV.com, MTV2.com,
mtvU.com, VH1.com, VH1Classic.com, CMT.com and RockBand.com, among others.
Editor's Notes: Based on comScore Media Metrix data, January 2007 through
March 2008. BET.com traffic is not part of the MTV Networks' Music Group data
About MTV Networks
MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world's
leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. MTV
Networks, with more than 150 channels worldwide, owns and operates the
following television programming services - MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1,
mtvU, NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT,
NOGGIN/THE N, VH1 CLASSIC, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV
NETWORKS, a package of 13 digital services, all of these networks trademarks
of MTV Networks. MTV Networks connects with its audiences through its robust
consumer products businesses and its more than 300 interactive properties
worldwide, including online, broadband, wireless and interactive television
services and also has licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication
deals whereby all of its programming services can be seen worldwide.
SOURCE MTV Networks Music Group
