Spreading wardrobe malfunctions and “Punk’d” all over the world may not be everyone’s ideal of exporting. “It told me to never underestimate the willingness of the audience to embrace MTV,” he said. When MTV first tried to persuade local authorities to start a network in Russia, a cautious Roedy took tapes of two prototypes – one a tame version of the network and another much wilder. “Fully Faltoo” is a sketch comedy show on MTV India and “Whatever Things” takes a popular Hong Kong singer and has him pull practical jokes all over Southeast Asia. “Megaliga” on MTV Brasil turns the local VJs into animated characters with superpowers. Some locally produced shows have also done well in their own cultures. “My instinct is that there’s a certain fascination with the Southern California car culture as an expression of Americana,” he said. Graden’s not quite sure why “Pimp My Ride” is so big overseas. MTV in Germany is even making a pilot for a local variation: “Pimp My Bicycle.” Probably the most popular MTV offering internationally is the outrageous auto makeover show “Pimp My Ride.” It’s made genial rapper Xzibit a worldwide star, said Brian Graden, MTV/VH1 entertainment president. Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, meanwhile, have big followings overseas. “Real World” is consistently MTV’s most popular show in the United States, but international audiences have little patience for self-absorbed young Americans trying to live together in a big house. It’s often a mystery which programs travel well. Programming is a mix of American shows, local versions of formats developed in America – like Australia’s “TRL” or video awards showsand original material unique to the individual cultures. MTV in Japan is very edgy, very tech-oriented, for example, while the stylistic MTV in Italy even has food programming. The theory is to make each channel reflect the local culture, Roedy said. MTV Australia films a version of “Total Request Live” from a boat in Sydney Harbor. MTV Indonesia includes a regular call to prayer for its Islamic audience. Launched last year, MTV Guangdong is available to 77 million homes in China and Hong Kong. That’s why there’s a Nickelodeon in Nepal, and a Nickelodeon Nordic dubbed in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. “So from a strategic viewpoint, it’s where MTV and Nickelodeon can reap the most rewards.” “The long-term future is international,” he said. The logic is simple: the United States is a “mature” market now with limited expansion possibilities, he said. HBO, Discovery, ESPN and CNN have all been active internationally, but none have built worldwide distribution to the extent of MTV, said Larry Gerbrandt, a television analyst for AlixPartners LLC. About 80 percent of its viewership now is outside of the United States. MTV estimates that at least one of their networks is available in one-third of the world’s homes with televisions. Twenty-three are Nickelodeon offshoots, 15 are VH1s and the rest includes a number of local networks that MTV’s parent company Viacom has acquired. Of the 100 worldwide networks, 43 are some variation of MTV – like Africa’s new networkMTV Base, which is an offshoot of a European channel focusing on urban music. I don’t think anyone imagined it would be like it is now.”
As he greets a recent visitor to his office, he’s a little glum he just got a call telling him Russian President Vladimir Putin had to put off their meeting for a few weeks. Much of it is the work of Bill Roedy, who joined MTV shortly after its first international network, MTV Europe, opened in Amsterdam in 1987.
Most of its American audience is probably unaware of the extent to which MTV and its sister networks have blanketed the world in an aggressive expansion drive. MTV Networks will reach a milestone in February when the turn of a switch starts an MTV outlet in Africa, the company’s 100th channel worldwide and first based on that continent. New York – Dreams of world domination must be hard for MTV executives to avoid when they host a party at the Kremlin, with a Russian diva and Queen dueting on “We Will Rock You” and Russian soldiers performing a hip-hop dance routine.
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