TransCity

In the Netherlands, The Box, part of MTV Networks, is developing into a new urban television platform. MTV Base has become a popular urban channel in the United Kingdom. And in the United States, MTV World, which operates television networks designed to super-serve ethnic populations in the United States, is rapidly expanding its operations with four new targeted channels.

In the fourth quarter of 2006, MTV Español will turn into the bilingual MTV TR3S. The channel will target 12- to 34-year-olds with pop-, urban- and rock-music programming. It also plans to add lifestyle series and news documentaries about U.S. Latinos. When Spanish is spoken on the network, English subtitles will be provided. “The Hispanic youth audience is not only leading the most important demographic changes in this country, they’re also heavily influencing the pop-culture landscape,” says Ms. Ballas-Traynor, the network’s general manager, in Advertising Age.

Another addition to MTV’s expanding ethnic network in the US, will be MTV K, to be introduced later this year. The first ever music and pop culture channel dedicated to young Korean-Americans will tap into South Korean hip-hop and the little-known but vibrant Korean-American pop scene.

Last year MTV World launched MTV Chi and MTV Desi. MTV Chi, aimed at Chinese-Americans, mixes up Mandarin rock, Canto pop and Chinese-American rap. MTV Desi, aimed at South Asian-Americans, mixes Bollywood videos, electronic tabla music and English-Gujarati hip-hop, with brief documentary clips profiling desis, comic skits about South Asian-American generational conflicts, interviews with bicultural artists, and live broadcasts of desi house parties.