As you know my daughter runs the largest Jonas Brothers fan site on the web. I help her out with the technology aspects of it, and in the process I have been gaining a lot of insight into the tween & teen entertainment industry.
As part of this experience I watch how the fans are supporting the Jonas Brothers, who if you didn't know are a fast growing musical talent signed by various Disney holdings like Hollywood Records, and the Disney Channel. In addition, they get a huge amount of play by Radio Disney. The band is also trying to break into the mainstream and getting a lot of play on Top 40 radio like Z100 in NYC, and recently KIIS FM in LA. One of the hardest places they have been trying to break into is the TRL countdown on MTV.
Getting on TRL appears to be a big issue here. There definitly is no lack of fans voting for the Jonas Brothers. The fan base is huge, so why no major headway on MTV? Some of the fans suggest there is some kind of bias on the part of MTV and that the vote is fixed. Could this be true?
Let's look at the parent company of MTV. MTV's parent is Viacom. As you may be aware Viacom owns CBS, Vh1, MTV, and Nickelodeon. Disney on the other hand owns ABC, Radio Disney, Hollywood Records, and of course the Disney Channel. Both companies compete in several areas. Recently MTV featured the Naked Brothers Band on TRL, the Naked Brothers Band is a manufactured fictional band by Nick. Wierd that MTV would put a fictional band on TRL, and the Jonas Brothers are having a hard time moving up the count. Could we be seeing the dawn of a major battle for our tweens? Just look at ticket sales for the upcoming Hannah Montana / Jonas Brothers tour, they're beating out names like Van Halen, and Elton John in ticket sales. There's no doubt this is being noticed by Viacom.
Viacom is undoubtably looking to position their properties to take advantage of the tween/teen market with the huge amount of disposable income they have. I expect to see Viacom positioning their properties (MTV, Nick, etc) to better compete against Disney. I believe Viacom is going to have a hard time against Disney, mainly due to the branding strategy Disney has by creating close relationships between their various properties like Radio Disney, the Disney Channel, and Hollywood Records. This move by Viacom to put the Naked Brothers Band on MTV could be just the start of a major move by Viacom to compete against Disney. The one problem Viacom may encounter is alienation on the part of their existing viewer base of MTV who may not like Nickelodeon invading their sector. We'll just have to wait and see, now that the Naked Brothers Band is up for a vote on TRL; how far will they go?
