MTV Invests $50 Million in Amp’d Mobile Service

Is it me, or is MTV Networks the “desperate housewives” version of Fox Interactive Media? Now that MTV/Viacom lost the two big deals to Murdoch’s FIM (well known by now), it is buying anything and everything that is left. Or investing, in this case.

It is investing $50 million in the much-hyped “edgy” mobile service Amp’d…this comes after MTV itself toyed around with the idea of launching its own MVNO, and decided it is too much of a financial and operational effort and risk, at least in U.S. And to add some perspective, being an MVNO is as cash intensive as you can get: Amp’d already had $67 million in funding and is in the process of raising an additional $100 million financing, according to CEO Peter Adderton, who believes the current round will be the last private financing round.

MTV and its sister stations will provide video clips and other content for Amp’d, which plans to kick off its service this week, or at least will start selling online this week.

As part of the investment, MTV’s chief digital officer Jason Hirschhorn will join the Amp’d board and the companies will also collaborate on marketing and creating original video content for the phones.

A wider retail launch is planned in January. Amp’d will kick off the service with one cell phone, the Kyocera Jet from Kyocera Corp., and add a phone from Motorola Inc. to its lineup a few weeks later.

On a related note, what happens to the till-now cozy relationship between MTV and Virgin Mobile in U.S.? Both have been collaborating on content for a long time now…

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