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September 21, 2007 > News > mtvU to be added to campus TV listings

mtvU to be added to campus TV listings

New channel will provide alternative to MTV by catering to collegiate viewers and focusing on upstart artists, but will it compete with Rice’s own student-run RTV5?

By Caroline May | Thresher staff

mtvU, an MTV owned 24-hour television channel that focuses on the college-age demographic, will soon become part of Rice’s standard cable lineup.

mtvU is a prepackaged channel that MTV is offering Rice for free in a year-long trial period.

MTV and Rice Information Technology are currently working out the final details of the contract. The station is not expected to get onto the channel line-up until much later in the semester, Student Association President Laura Kelley said.

Late last year, MTV offered Rice the opportunity to add mtvU to its conventional television line-up, Kelley said. After deliberation among administrative staff and student leaders, Rice agreed to a one-year trial period with mtvU. mtvU is not specifically tailored to Rice students, but it will provide Rice with 15-20 seconds of advertising time each hour to run campus-wide announcements.

mtvU will focus on up-and-coming artists in an endeavor to provide an alternative to its mother station MTV. It will feature shows focused on student concerns, such as scholarship opportunities, student activism, student submitted films and news and music MTV considers appealing to college students. mtvU will also feature programming such as “Sex Cred with Dr. Ruth,” “Professors Strike Back” and “Stand-In.”

mtvU is currently on an estimated 750 college campuses, according to the network’s Web site. Campuses that allow MTV and its advertisers access to their students via mtvuU could potentially be featured on an mtvU show or promotion, such as having programs filmed at Rice.

“I think it’s good [that mtvU is showing music videos] especially since a lot of us are into that kind of stuff and maybe it will help some new and upcoming artists that need more publicity to get out,” Wiess College freshman Adrian Frimpong said. “I think it might give people who don’t listen to all kinds of music more exposure to different kinds of music.”

RTV5 Station Manager Dan Derozier said he was was not concerned about the introduction of mtvU on campus because the content of the two channels is very different.

End of article

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