Excite@Home, MTVi Forge Broadband Cross-Marketing Agreement

Broadband portal Excite@Home (ATHM) and MTVi this week cozied up to one another, announcing plans to develop a co-branded broadband music site, which MTVi has agreed to promote on the MTV and VH1 cable properties.

MTVi will also be the exclusive advertising sales force for the music.excite.com site, where it is expected to experiment with the rich media opportunities the broadband world offers.

Besides straight promotion on MTV and VH1, the deal also calls for the companies to create content on the music.excite.com site that corresponds with MTV and VH1 programming, thereby driving fans of those shows online to seek more information. MTVi is a unit of MTV Networks, which is owned by Viacom Inc. (VIA).

“This deal is a brand, content and creative collaboration, and serves as the cornerstone of our music strategy and is a first in melding on-air programs with the broadband experience,” said George Bell, president and chief executive officer of Excite@Home.

“With this deal, we will uniquely bring together our broadband capabilities with MTV on-air programming, music and entertainment. The convergence of the TV audience and broadband is a natural one and we plan to give both early and experienced broadband users exposure to all the Web has to offer in music and entertainment through unique broadband applications.”