"It's immensely important because that's where our audience in going. They love their mobile handsets, they spend a lot of time and they never leave home without them. And now they're looking for engaging, entertaining content which is where we step in to provide compelling original content, extending our show franchises and also new music content for them on their handsets."
The MTV president says 3 minute clips seem to fit cell phone viewing habits best. Clips from Comedy Central's Daily Show….or from VH1 for instance. But beyond that…
"We're toying with the notion of creating films for mobile devices that might play over ten episodes." And when might we start to see some of that? "Hopefully this year. We're talking to some creative people who've made movies and TV shows who want to create original content for handsets."
In the meantime, MTV's growing digital workforce is readying a music downloading and subscription service called Urge. The partnership with Microsoft is scheduled to debut this summer…competing with Apple's iTunes, Napster and Real Networks' Rhapsody. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.