MUMBAI: Russian entertainment media group Prof-Media has said it will shut MTV Russia beginning May next year citing falling viewership.

The music channel?s ratings dropped due to growing popularity of listening to music online which made it unviable to run.

MTV Russia, which began broadcasting in 1998, will be replaced by a new entertainment channel Pyatnitsa targeted at the 14-44 TG.

Prof-Media had in 2007 bought MTV Russia and VH1 Russia for about $360 million in cash from American media conglomerate Viacom.

MUMBAI: Music and youth entertainment channel MTV is extending its musical franchise ?MTV Unplugged? through a dual telecast of the property on its sister channel Colors.

The show?s second season, which kickstarts on 3 November, will be aired on Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at noon on MTV. The time slot on Colors is yet to be decided, said Colors CEO Raj Nayak.

MTV Unplugged will also be aired on radio through Fever FM. MTV?s other music property, Coke Studio?s second season, also had a dual telecast on Doordarshan.

MTV EVP and business head Aditya Swamy said, ?This time around, the focus is not so much on marketing but on distributing the property to a larger segment of the audience. By telecasting the show on Colors and Fever, we hope to widen the audience reach.?

MTV is currently positioned as a multi-platform and multi-dimensional channel which has different faces at different times. "So with ?Roadies? and Splitsvilla, we have a reality show face. With ?Rush? and ?Bring it on?, we have a TV series face. Our music face is through properties like Coke Studio, Roots, Unplugged and Sound Tripping,? said Swamy.

The title sponsor for the show is Royal Stag. Other sponsors include HTC, Vodafone and Tissot. As part of its marketing initiatives, the show will be promoted on air by Fever FM by RJ?s and through contests.

?We will be doing 14 live shows in the top youth and markets of the country. We have also got major labels like Sony and Universal on board for the CDs and DVDs. On the digital front too, we have associated with entities like iTunes, Napster and Nokia Music Store.,? Swamy said.

Sixty seven per cent of the property?s ad revenue will come from sponsorship while 33 per cent will be from spot buys.

The landscape of the music channel space has changed considerably over the past few years with the leading channels like MTV and Channel V shifting their positioning to youth entertainment channels. While MTV has done this on a global scale, Swamy says that India is not really different from the rest of the world.

?The youth is becoming exposed to a lot of global elements today and India is not so different in this space as compared to the rest of the world. The game, though, has changed. For example, earlier we kept the biggest and most popular artist for last. But now, we are launching the show?s second season with the A R Rehman episode,? he explained.

MTV Unplugged season two comprises 10 episodes where artists perform acoustic version of their numbers without the support of any electronic devices. This season, the show is curated by Ranjit Barot and will see participation from artists like AR Rehman, Kailasa, Sunidhi Chauhan, Lucky Ali, Indus Creed, Agnee, Ash King and Shafqat Amanat Ali.

MUMBAI: Viacom18 will soon launch Rishtey in UK, a new mass entertainment Hindi entertainment channel that will complement its existing flagship channel Colors.

Rishtey will be launched in UK first by IndiaCast, showcasing content from a spectrum of genres including format shows, fiction, music and news.

The free-to-air (FTA) channel will be available on Sky Digital, it is learnt. Test signals are on and the launch is expected next month.

Rishtey will air re-run shows of Colors and also have original content.

Viacom18 operates a bouquet of channels including MTV, Nickelodeon, Vh1, Colors, Sonic and Comedy Central. It is also engaged in the film business through Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

Says Viacom18 group CEO Sudhanshu Vats, ?While we have a horizontal presence across television entertainment, with the launch of Rishtey, we now begin the phase of strengthening our presence in each vertical as well.?

Colors CEO Raj Nayak adds, ?With ?Rishtey?, we intend to create a new category within the general entertainment space, and given the rich mine of content within the Viacom18 Group, we?re confident of ?Rishtey? resonating well with both ? viewers as well as advertisers.?

IndiaCast COO Gaurav Gandhi states, ?Rishtey offers a wide range of variety entertainment programming that will engage, entertain and delight the South Asian audiences in the UK. As a free-to-air service, Rishtey perfectly complements our flagship brand Colors, by reaching out to a much wider audience base and giving them a taste of our much loved programming."

MUMBAI: TV18 and Viacom18?s venture, IndiaCast, has launched the international version of MTV India in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. With this launch, MTV India?s international distribution footprint now spans 31 countries.

MTV India will be available on Pehla branded packs across DTH, Cable, IPTV and SMATV in Bahrain, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan and Mauritiana. MTV India will also be launching on other platforms shortly.

Featuring music and youth reality content from India in Hindi, MTV India will complement Viacom International Media Networks? (VIMN) existing MTV channel, which services the Middle East and North Africa region with Arabic and international music and entertainment content.

This is IndiaCast?s second channel in the region after Hindi GEC COLORS was launched in September 2010. The company?s team in Dubai, which currently distributes and handles advertising sales for COLORS, will be managing the distribution and sales for MTV India as well in the region.

This launch expands the offering for advertisers in the region, allowing them to reach both family and youth audiences.

IndiaCast COO Gaurav Gandhi said, "Indians are passionate about their music and Hindi Music in particular has a huge following both in India and overseas. The launch of MTV India in the Middle East & North Africa region, will give an opportunity for the South Asian and other audiences to connect with the Indian music and reality programming that they love most. MTV India is our second brand in the region and we intend to grow our presence here with more offerings from our extensive news and regional channel portfolio in the near future."

MTV India business head Aditya Swamy said, "MTV India has constantly engaged and entertained young India and now the opportunity to do so with young people in the other countries is very exciting. While we will leverage our cult franchises such as Roadies, Unplugged and Rush in these markets, we will also look at some region specific initiatives which will resonate with the local audience."