VEVO TV launches

INTRODUCING THE NEXT-GEN VEEJAY: VEVO has launched a 24-hour online music network and plans to add a pay-per-vew TV iteration by year’s end of this year, according to published reports. VEVO TV, as it’s been dubbed, became available online in U.S. and Canada yesterday, but you won’t find it on YouTube, which has been engaged in renegotiations with VEVO for months. Said CEO Rio Caraeff in an interview with Bloomberg, “We are trying to differentiate our brand and service from YouTube. We’re using YouTube as marketing for the channel, not distribution." Asked if VEVO was looking to become the modern-day equivalent of MTV, Caraeff told the Financial Times: "I can only hope and aspire to that, but by the nature of it it'll be different. Part of what we're trying to achieve is that element of nostalgia, but 70% of our audience is under 34." In an interview with AdWeek, VEVO SVP Product and Technology Michael Cerda explained, "What we found was, there's a class of viewer that wants more choice still but doesn’t want the work. Part of the thesis is the millennials, who were never programmed for; they were born on the Internet. They have a paradox of choice, and there’s too much for them." (3/13a)