I Want My (Web) MTV

By the summer of 2006, MTV parent Viacom, like every other old-media company, had become keenly aware of the staggering implications of broadband Internet. During the previous year, Disney had agreed to provide hit shows from its ABC network for download on Apple's iTunes, YouTube was launched, and Facebook's active users swelled to 5.5 million. "In short, the 'user revolution' really democratized content creation and distribution," Salmi said in a major industry address last year. The flagship MTV channel was on the move, too, launching one of the first broadband sites, MTV Overdrive. To bolster MTV Networks' digital presence, Viacom went on a buying spree. Among the acquisitions: Salmi's Atom Entertainment, including AtomFilms .com and the gaming sites Shockwave .com and AddictingGames .com. The price tag was $200 million.

But the deal that attracted the most attention—much of it negative—was the one that was never consummated. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. snatched MySpace, the "it" site of social networking, from Viacom's embrace. In that deal's wake, Viacom's cantankerous founder, Sumner Redstone, blamed his longtime lieutenant, CEO Tom Freston, for letting the Web's then hottest brand get away. He fired Freston, replacing him with Dauman, and charged the new CEO with this mandate: make MTV digitally cool. The trick was, he didn't want Dauman making any gazillion-dollar acquisitions to do it (no old-media company wants to make the same mistake Time Warner did with AOL). And that's where Salmi came in. "The reason I took the job was because it was clear that the media business was undergoing a major transformation, and I was excited to have a part in that," Salmi says. Sure, it's a treacherous ride at times, but Mika seems to be hurtling along effortlessly on both skis.

© 2008