MuchMusic, much in the news of late, will air the popular AOL online concert series:
- While many companies are considering putting shows online, the partners believe their project is the first time content has been repurposed in the other direction.
This is AOL Music’s first television production. “With over 1 million streams a week, ‘Sessions@AOL’ has already proven to be a hit with music fans online, so we’re excited to bring this show to an even broader audience of television viewers,” AOL Music executive director Evan Harrison said.
According to Harrison, very few alterations to the original content were needed. “Every shoot is in TV quality,” he said. “We literally just had to change the breaks for commercials.”
MuchMusic president Marc Juris agreed. “It’s all broadcast quality, beautifully shot and beautifully mixed,” he said. “They made sure that the artists are platformed in the best possible way.”
….The material is already used at least twice on AOL: once in a half-hour program every other Thursday for broadband users, and then segmented into shorter parts more suitable for dial-up subscribers.
Putting the music into a more traditional television program is “first and foremost a brand extension for us,” Harrison said.
But it is also a valuable way to drive consumers to AOL and then to broadband. “There’s upselling in getting music on narrowband,” he said. “We really focus on showing the difference between broadband. It’s not just about being faster, it’s about television-quality programming.” [Hollywood Reporter]
Should help to further identify AOL with broadband; gives MuchMusic a good concert series and reinforces their Internet/TV synergy – seems like a good move for both parties.