MTV creates ‘first live-stream-to-TV’ format

MTV Australia claims it will be the first channel to produce and broadcast a ‘live-stream-to-TV’ format.

The Viacom International Media Networks-owned broadcaster will air the currently untitled show on linear music channel MTV Music next year.

This comes after an experimental Viacom unit, Viacom Labs, incubated a format that looks to bring together fan experience, engagement and traditional television format beats.

An experiment in June saw Viacom in the US, Europe and Australia invite production teams and viewers to live-stream themselves dancing to music videos that aired on MTV Music Australia. This saw the network’s audience more than double its average number.

The show will pull in fans’ live-streams as a curated real time feed running on-air during a regularly scheduled TV show.

The news comes after Machine Shop Entertainment chief Kiel Berry joined Viacom Labs as co-head and senior VP, along with Susan Claxton, who said of the new format: “Viacom Labs’ mission is to constantly evolve how fans connect to the content they love and give them opportunities to make it their own,” said Susan Claxton, co-head of Viacom Labs.

“Labs’ global live-stream-to-TV experiment with our amazing colleagues at MTV Australia demonstrates what’s possible when we work together to leverage the dynamics of the social web and the massive scale and context of linear television.”