MXG Media Creates Interactive TV Division

Brandweek,  Dec 13, 1999  by Susan Kuchinskas

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Aiming to be in the vanguard of PC/TV convergence, MXG Media is launching an interactive television division. MXGtv will be headed by newly hired president Rob Schwartz, who was most recently a creative executive at Disney's Touchstone Television, Los Angeles.

Schwartz will develop video properties for cable and broadcast, as well as shorter programming to be streamed from a new Web site, mxgtv.com, that's going live today. Said Jan Gilbreath, CEO of the Manhattan Beach, Calif., company, "When convergence happens, whether it ends up on TV or computer screens, we want to be the leaders in creating compelling content with embedded commerce opportunities."

MXG Media's original Web site, MoxieGirl.com, for girls and young women 12 to 24 years old, went live in 1997, with a redesign and the new name of MXG last March, coinciding with the launch of an eponymous quarterly magazine-cum-catalog. The magazine now has a circulation of 500,000. In January, its frequency will increase to bimonthly, with the same $9.45 annual subscription rate and single-issue cover price of $2.95. Revenue comes from a mix of advertising, sponsorships, subscriptions and sales of merchandise.

MXGtv will develop projects with USA Networks, which made a $26 million investment in the company last month, as well as independent producers. The magazine and Web sites will serve as "farm teams" for possible TV shows. The feedback MXG receives from users in the form of e-mails, surveys and page views will help it develop and fine-tune characters and programs before committing resources for full-blown television production. Schwartz wouldn't disclose his division's budget and said it was too early to set launch dates for programming.

MXGtv shows will be commerce-enabled. "Those shows are intended to have a robust interactive element," Schwartz explained, in the form of "mirror sites" to be called up on computers alongside the TV. Watchers of MXGtv, for example, could click on a piece of apparel worn by a celebrity to get more information or purchase it, using technology from partner Veon, San Francisco.

Michael Wood, vp of Teenage Research Unlimited, a Northbrook, Ill., consultancy, said he expects the television division to be successful. "We're seeing the meshing of different media with teens," Wood said. "MXG took the positives of a teen magazine one step further by allowing teens to make purchases on the spot."

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