YouTube proved that Comedy Central's faux news anchors, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, could attract a substantial Web following along with their late-night television audiences.
It's Erik Flannigan's job to build on that momentum. Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks Entertainment Group, which oversees Comedy Central, plans to announce today that it has promoted him to executive vice president of digital media. He is tasked with plotting digital strategy for the popular channel as well as Spike TV and TV Land, Internet sites AtomFilms and GameTrailers, and Xfire, a messaging program for PC gamers.
At 41, Flannigan is already a grizzled veteran of Internet video. Before joining MTV as a senior vice president of digital media last fall, he oversaw Time Warner Inc.'s Moviefone, AOL Music and AOL Radio. Before that he headed programming for MovieBeam, Walt Disney Co.'s video-on-demand project, and was vice president of music services and programming at RealNetworks Inc.
He spoke with The Times this week.
What did MTV learn from its experience with YouTube?
One thing YouTube taught us all about is timeliness and the desire of the community to actually comment on what they were watching. It was a great way to watch that clip that everyone was talking about. But there was by no means a predictable way to watch last night's "Daily Show."
Today, we deliver on that promise, if you missed last night's show and you want to see it. The next thing, beyond last night and last week, is the entire history of the show. How do you bring that back to life?
What's your digital strategy for MTV?
Of course we're extending onto all the digital platforms. But the strategy goes beyond repurposing assets. The audience now, in 2007, is eager to contribute to the dialogue. It's not only about consuming the video and reacting to the video.
[The challenge is] how do you own your own programming when you are part of the social fabric of this country, part of the zeitgeist?
With "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," we want to make sure if people are reacting to what's going on on the show, they're doing it in our world and on our [Web] pages.
What's the biggest business challenge?
TV and radio, these things were built on the model of advertising. That's the biggest challenge ahead of us. No matter what TV network you are, no matter what old-media business you are, you're still looking at revenue -- how does my digital revenue grow?
