MTV’s network has become a symbol of globalization. Established in 1981, the US based music
TV network has been expanding outside of its North American base since 1987; when it first
opened MTV Europe. Today MTV network figures that every second of every day over 2 million
people are watching MTV around the world, the majority outside the United States. In the
1980s, when the main programming fare was still music videos, it piped a single feed across
Europe almost entirely composed of American Programming with English speaking VJs. Naively
the networks US managers thought Europeans would flock to the American programming. But
while viewers in Europe shared a common interest in a handful of global superstars, their tastes
turned out to be surprisingly local. Many staples of the American music scene left Europeans
cold. MTV suffered as a result.
After losing shares to local competitors, who focused more on local taste, MTV changed its
strategy in 1990. It broke its service into ‘feeds’ aimed at national or regional markets. While
MTV network exercises creative control over these different feeds, and while the entire channel
has the similar frantic look and feel of MTV of United states, a significant share of the content is
local. Although many programming idea still generates from USA, with equivalents for staples
such as THE REAL WORLD in different countries, an increasing shares of programs are
originated locally prioritizing local concept. Like in Italy, MTV kitchen combines cooking with a
music countdown. The Indian channel produces 21 homegrown shows hosted by local VJs who
speak ‘Hinglish’ a city bred strain of Hindi & English. And of course each feed prominently
features music videos by locally popular performers i.e. Coke Studio. This has helped MTV to
reap big benefits allowing the network to capture viewers back from local imitators
1. What entry modes could MTV use in order to expand into the foreign market?
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