On Air, On The Go & Online, MTV Is On Fire!

On Air, On The Go & Online, MTV Is On Fire!

"The Hills" Sets 2008 Cable Record As #1 Telecast With Extended Season Premiere Scoring 5.0 P12-34

28 Million Votes Cast & Counting For Anticipated Finale Of "Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew"

Plus "Making The Band 4," "Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Gauntlet III," MTV Games' Rock Band & More Create Their Own Success Stories

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Sound the alarm ... MTV (http://www.mtv.com/) is officially on fire! MTV's premiere of "The Hills" (http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/the_hills/series.jhtml) Monday night was the highest rated telecast of the year-to-date for cable P12-34, posting a 5.0 rating. MTV fans have also showed their astonishing numbers by casting over 28 million votes in just the last five days to crown the best dance crew in the nation on Thursday night at 10PM ET with the LIVE finale of "Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew." (http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/dance_crew/series.jhtml) In addition, the network also wrapped big seasons of "Making The Band 4" (http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/making_the_band_4/series.jhtml) and "Real World/Road Rules Challenges: The Gauntlet III" (http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/rwrr_challenge-gauntlet3/series.jhtml) celebrating everything from #1 albums to season-over-season growth. All the series speak to MTV programming head, Tony DiSanto's strategy of fast-tracking projects, supersizing orders, 'eventizing' series premieres and finales, experimenting with new formats that empower viewers, and reengineering hit series to one hour formats to give fans more of what they want.

Success wasn't limited to just programming as MTV properties ranging from video games to its network of online communities have also caught fire. MTV Games' highly acclaimed Rock Band (http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/rock_band/index.jhtml) video game has gone six-times platinum for its downloadable content, and has sold over 1.8 million units since its launch in November 2007. MTV's dozens of unique online communities including IAmOnMTV.com, Dance.MTV.com and newly launched ParisBFF.com have been hits as well. Since the beginning of the year, viewers have generated a cumulative 47 million page views and spent more than 23 million total minutes on the sites.

   "THE HILLS"   -- "The Hills" extended season three premiere was the highest rated      telecast of the year-to-date for cable, posting a 5.0 P12-34 rating;      also making it the highest rated telecast of "The Hills" franchise.   -- For the night (8PM-11PM), "The Hills" premiere was the most watched      program across all of television among P12-34, even out-delivering      broadcast.   -- The telecast over-delivered the season three premiere by 37% among      P12-34.   -- The premiere averaged over 4.7 million viewers (P2+), another franchise      high.   -- Following the premiere, Mariah Carey's      (http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/carey_mariah/artist.jhtml) performance      (11:02PM-11:12PM) posted a 3.3 P12-34 rating, growing 181% from the      time period norm.   -- In its first full day live on MTV.com (3/25), the new episode of "The      Hills" (episode 19) delivered a whopping 1.8M streams, up +29% from the      'day after' of season 3's premiere episode.   -- The day after the on-air premiere (3/25), "The Hills" content on      MTV.com delivered a staggering 2.2 million streams.   -- The Hills section of the site attracted 26% more unique visitors over      the Season 2 premiere and 59% increase compared to Season 1 premiere      (5/31/06).     "RANDY JACKSON PRESENTS: AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW"  

Over 28 million and counting! A nation of numbers has emerged since last Thursday's airing of MTV's "Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew" to voice their support for the last two crews standing -- Jabbawockeez (http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/dance_crew/crews.jhtml?crew=jabbawockeez) and Status Quo (http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/dance_crew/crews.jhtml?crew=status_quo). It will be the ultimate dance-off as the crews' battle in the LIVE season finale Thursday, March 27th at 10PM ET. From Thursday 3/20 to date, over 28 million votes have come in via phone, text messaging and the Web with over 9 million votes cast in the first 24-hours of polling! Also, Dance Crew content alone on MTV.com generated over 1 million streams in just the first 24-hours after last week's episode. In addition to its recent success, over the last seven weeks "Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew" has been the top rated telecast in Thursday primetime (8PM-11PM) among P12-34 across all of cable and is the highest rated new MTV series among P12-34 for 2008-to-date. The show has also seen consistent week-to-week digital growth since its season premiere and has remained MTV.com's top show since its debut, averaging +26% growth weekly for its show pages.

   "MAKING THE BAND 4" &   "REAL WORLD/ROAD RULES CHALLENGE: GAUNTLET III"  

Coming off an unforgettable season which reached over 55 million viewers and delivered over 9 million streams on MTV.com, MTV and Diddy announced the pick up of another season of the hit series "Making The Band." The full season of MTV's "Making The Band 4, Season 2" ranked #1 in its time period (Mon 10PM-11PM) among F12-34 across all cable and averaged a 2.2 P12-34 rating, up 8% versus last season. Since the season 2 premiere "Making The Band 4" has consistently ranked as one of the top shows on MTV.com, attracting nearly 2.5 million visits to the show area. "Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Gauntlet III" returned with a new hour long format, making MTV #1 in cable on Wednesdays 10-11pm among P12-34. The full season delivered an impressive 2.4 P12-34 rating, up 56% from the prior season average. It reached over 64 million viewers (P2+), with over 31 million from our P12-34 core.

ROCK BAND

MTV Games' Rock Band has sold over 1.8 million units since its launch in November 2007 through February 2008 according to NPD while Rock Band downloadable content has gone 6 times platinum with music fans and gamers purchasing over 6 million levels based on songs from an amazing selection of artists ranging from classic rock to up and coming, emerging acts. MTV Games also recently announced that Rock Band for Wii will be released as a Special Edition bundle including the software, drums, microphone and a wireless guitar. Stand alone instruments will also be available on June 22nd for people who want to build their band one instrument at a time or want to play the drum versus drum game mode. The game will feature 63 songs which include five bonus songs for Wii gamers to enjoy.

ONLINE COMMUNITIES

MTV's dozens of online communities -- including its popular IAmOnMTV.com, Dance.MTV.com and newly launched ParisBFF.com -- have proven to be monster hits online as well. Since the beginning of the year, viewers have generated a cumulative 47 million page views and spent more than 23 million total minutes on the sites (with average time spent per user of 15 minutes) -- key metrics that reinforce the immersive nature of the verticals.

MTV is the dynamic, vibrant experiment at the intersection of music, creativity and youth culture. For over 26 years, MTV has evolved, challenged the norm, and detonated boundaries -- giving each new generation a creative outlet and voice that entertains, informs and unites on every platform and screen. On-air, MTV has been the number one rated 24 hour ad-supported cable network P12-24 for 16 straight years. Online, MTV.com scored double-digit growth in 2007 and MTV launched ten dynamic online communities and six new virtual worlds. On the go, MTV Mobile is the #1 music brand in the wireless space - delivering 90% more streams than in 2006. And MTV's successful sibling networks MTV2, mtvU and MTV Tr3s each deliver unprecedented customized content, super-serving music fans, college students and young American Latinos like no one else. MTV is part of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) , one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Wanna know more? Come on in ... www.mtvpress.com.

Source: MTV

CONTACT: David French, +1-212-846-6406, David.French@mtvstaff.com; or
Ariana Urbont, +1-310-752-8079, Ariana.Urbont@mtvstaff.com; both of MTV

Web site: http://www.mtv.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment