mtv networks

We already knew that in the heated battle among location-based social-networking start-ups, Foursquare already had Ashton Kutcher on its team. Turns out it also has "Jersey Shore" star "DJ Pauly D," one of a handful of MTV and VH1 celebrities who are featured in a new marketing campaign that MTV Networks has inked with the pumped-up Foursquare.

(Serious question: Has this start-up jumped the shark already?)

The partnership tests a new kind of Foursquare account known as "Celebrity Mode," in which a prominent Foursquare user (ahem, Ashton) can choose to share "check-ins" … Read more

Billboard analyst Glenn Peoples predicts that RealNetworks will sell its 51 percent stake in music-streaming subscription service Rhapsody in 2010. My question: who'd buy it?

Rhapsody certainly appears to be a drag on RealNetworks' earnings. According to the company's financial filings for the third quarter of 2009, its music businesses--which include Rhapsody and sales of music through the RealPlayer store--posted an operating loss of $10 million. That's better than the $25 million operating loss in the same quarter of 2008, but the fundamentals aren't improving.

Subscriber numbers are down from about 800,000 at the beginning … Read more

It's the last live episode of The 404...of 2009. Russ Frushtick, chief gamer at MTV Networks, joins the show today along with Mark Licea of The Green Show to discuss the tumultuous, but exciting year in videogames. Finally, we get to the winners of our "Hangover" contest.

Because of the Great Recession, many games this year have been pushed back to the next year, and we've seen developers folding left and right. Jeff counts down his list of the most anticipated games of 2010--many of which were suppose to be released this year. Some of the games include Dark Void and Bayonetta. We think the main character of Bayonetta looks a lot like Sarah Palin.

Some of Jeff's favorite games this year were Ghostbusters and, of course, Modern Warfare 2, which Russ actually says didn't make his top 5. Most of that he says has to do with the so-so single player mode and the glitches and cheats in the multiplayer mode of the game. Jeff and Wilson think that Ghostbusters was pretty entertaining, but they both agree that the gameplay itself was a little unappealing after 6 or 7 hours.

Finally, we had a contest to give away copies of "The Hangover" in Blu-ray and DVD. Most of our hangover stories were definitely NSFW, but a couple of them reminded us of our own horrible hangover stories from college and our adolescent days. On that note, please take care of yourself during the holidays. We will see you on the other side of New Year's. In the mean time, send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com or leave a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). There's no guarantee we will get to it during our break, but we will appreciate it. Be safe and have a blast!

MySpace has appointed Alex Maghen to the role of chief technology officer, the News Corp.-owned social site announced Tuesday. He replaces outgoing CTO Aber Whitcomb, who had been at the company since its inception.

Maghen was already at MySpace, serving in the CTO position of its MySpace Music division, a joint venture with the major record labels. Prior to that, he held CTO roles at Yahoo Entertainment and MTV Networks--the latter of which was also the former employer of current MySpace entertainment execs Courtney Holt and Jason Hirschhorn.

"The next phase of MySpace's evolution will further empower … Read more

This post was updated at 1:40 p.m. PDT with RealNetworks' correction of the percentage of employees laid off.

Entertainment software company Real Networks laid off 12 employees within its music division or about 9 percent of the division staff, the company said Thursday.

The cuts come a week after RealNetworks reported marked decreases in the number of subscribers at its Rhapsody music subscription and online radio units.

Rhapsody, which is partly owned by Viacom's MTV Networks, lost 50,000 of its 800,000 subscribers over the past three months, RealNetworks said last week in its second-quarter earnings … Read more

This is sort of interesting. MTV Networks, which certainly has a lot of video content out there on the Web, on Wednesday released the results of an internal study to determine what kinds of advertisements are most effective and online-friendly matches for short-form online videos.

The conclusion? "Project Inform," the MTV survey, found that a five-second-long "pre-roll" ad in advance of the clip, combined with ten seconds of a semi-transparent ad unit that takes up the lower third of the video (and starts about ten seconds in), makes up "both the most effective and the … Read more

Viacom's MTV Networks has brought some of its television content to Netflix's library of streaming online video, the companies announced Monday.

The offering consists primarily of kids' shows from the Nickelodeon network, with select seasons from the shows "iCarly," "Blue's Clues," "Dora the Explorer," "SpongeBob SquarePants," and a handful of others, as well as the first nine seasons of "South Park," the Comedy Central animated series that you probably don't want your kids watching.

Netflix's streaming-video service still very much takes the back burner to … Read more

Update at 7:59 a.m. PST: A RealNetworks representative quashes a rumor about a RealNetworks-MTV joint venture.

The long-expected layoffs at Viacom, parent company of MTV Networks, have finally taken place.

According to an internal memo (first leaked to gossip blog Gawker), 850 positions have been cut. That amounts to 7 percent of the company's workforce.

"Our advantages and best efforts can't completely protect Viacom from the very serious and broad-based challenges of this economic recession," CEO Philippe Dauman wrote in the e-mail. "Viacom's long-term health will depend on our shared commitment to … Read more

A new kind of video advertising is coming to MySpace.

The company has partnered with a video advertising company, Auditude, and Viacom's MTV Networks division, to bring Auditude's video ads to MTV content on the News Corp.-owned social network's MySpaceTV video hub.

Here's how Auditude works: it can detect MTV Networks content if either MTVN itself or a MySpace user uploads it, and then it implements both targeted ads and "attribution ads," which provide data about the source of the programming. (For example: an "attribution ad" for Comedy Central talk show … Read more