Video might have killed the radio star, but then, social media and the tentacles of the online world intertwined with everything else and has all but killed off MTV- Music Television.
It’s both scary and weirdly uplifting to see what was such an important, powerful and relevant brand- an absolutely arrogant brand comprising some of the most overrated, vapid and overpaid hires- floating somewhere out there with no one knowing who’s running the ship or if it’s on auto-pilot.
Especially in Asia, since one-time Scottish sex toys salesman, Frank Brown, below, who, somehow, ended up running MTV Asia, left that very expensive building that housed the then-music channel in Singapore, it’s been all one big downhill racer.
And, my, my, what secrets that building still holds today- the politics going back to the ousting of the channel’s first Chairman in Asia-Peter Jamieson, former head- and an unsuccessful one- of BMG in the region, the various ragtag teams hired over the years, the shams, cons and false “winners” of the “MTV Asia Awards”, and the various deals with music companies to curry favours, plus the millions lost when PolyGram decided to be 50 percent partners in the music channel when it was launched as a solo entity in Asia. And that’s where I came in- to help PolyGram keep an eye on those wascally MTV wabbits running the show in the region supposedly being led by Tom Freston and Bill Roedy, below, in the States, both of whom had no idea how Asia worked and which was why their strategy of appealing to a “Pan Asian audience” was Boo Boo 101, Yogi.
The bigger problem was that the wheel was broken before PolyGram became part of the bedlam and the bloodbath. MTV had setup its own production studios in Singapore for which they had paid an astronomical price.
Someone, somewhere certainly made millions on that deal including the purchase of the satellite dishes. But, there was no paper trail as to how any of this happened nor the approval process which raises the question of whether PolyGram did proper Due Diligence before jumping into bed with a partner they actually never ever liked. It was one helluva bad marriage made even more complicated as PolyGram belonged to Philips, not the most creative of companies, who also wanted a say in things.
Meanwhile, MTV went ahead with a half-arsed business strategy and hired staff, more staff were hired with most of them not being much good, and this Peter Jamieson Principle- and later Frank Brown Deck Of Cards- was allowed to happen by Viacom and MTV Networks in New York.
PolyGram quickly cut its losses and bailed at the point when a purported US$1m was being lost annually through an orgy of spending including even the most junior executives and VJs leading a Rock Star lifestyle with India being its largest market. But the word “market” was as way off as China being called a “music market”. Population numbers and population growth don’t result in financial profitability, and MTV Asia limped along until someone finally realised that Asian audiences don’t care for the music or cultures of most other Asian markets, and which meant the launch of three different satellite feeds- one for the ASEAN markets, one for India and the other for Mainland China. But, by then, the damage had been done, rival Channel [V], part of STARTV, which was the original home of MTV Asia, had stolen a march from the Made In Asia brand, and it was good money chasing after bad with no light at the end of the tunnel.
With the biggest markets for viewership being India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, where was the beef that could bring in the bacon? Eyeballs without advertising revenue didn’t exactly make sense.
Today, where is MTV Asia and what has it morphed into? Well, in the most simplistic terms, YouTube is the new MTV and far better with much greater content whereas the former music television channel has lost whatever USP it might have had.
Like every music company, it was far too slow off the blocks with the Freston and Roedy Years being way too focused on the Cool Factor and too arrogant and also naive not to see the enemy within and fail to understand the DIY world being created by consumers for consumers and where the lunatics quickly took over all the music-based asylums.
While MTV in the US and Europe remain relevant mainly through its Awards shows, MTV Asia- like Channel [V]- is barely visible.
It might be “doing Okay in India”, but what does this mean whereas its “biggest markets” being the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Indonesia isn’t exactly news to make one go wild in the land of a thousand dances.
Having dabbled and then entered the world of reality television with America-centric programming, MTV Asia is about as “Asian” as chop suey and Yan Can Cook.
Asia has changed and continues to change led by the youth of Asia as has been the case with the student leaders of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central. However naive their politics might be, Occupy Central has resulted in an explosion of creativity.
MTV Asia, however, appears euthanised and bereft of any ideas or creativity to catch this new wave of Change, and be seen as a revitalised, re-energised, inspired and rebranded product that admits to itself that it’s been asleep at the wheel for over a decade and needs a new driver and school bus to get this sucker to a new home NOT inhabited by what was “The MTV Generation”. Remember them? I try not to.
Hans Ebert Chairman and CEO We-Enhance Inc and Fast Track Global Ltd www.fasttrack.hk
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