MTV Pacts With Baidu and New Chinese Mobile Provider

Fresh on the heels of its distribution deal with Google, MTV has reached a distribution agreement with another Internet Goliath. China’s leading search engine, Baidu will help extend the MTV brand deeper into one of the media industry’s most coveted markets.

MTV and Baidu will initially distribte some 15,000 videos online, as well as MTV programming such as “Pimp My Ride.” Some will be free to viewers, others entail a yet-undetermined fee. MTV’s sister network, Nickelodeon, will also supply material.

According to Bill Roedy, vice chairman of MTV Networks who has long been responsible for the network’s international expansion, censorship won’t be an issue as the programming will already have been approved for broadcast. About 70 percent of MTV videos available on Baidu will be by Chinese performers.

MTV also pacted with China’s second-largest mobile provider, China Unicom, to offer ring tones, entertainment news and other services. The company already has a similar agreement with China Mobile, the country’s leading provider. The company says it now has access to all of China’s 400 million mobile phones.