The MTV empire is expanding again. Its latest channel, MTV K, a musical outpost for Korean-Americans, debuts Tuesday.
It comes on the heels of MTV Desi and MTV Chi, outlets for the Indian-American and Chinese-American communities, which launched last year.
“We are a global brand,” said Nusrat Durrani, who as head of MTV World oversees all three channels. “We are obviously a leading youth brand in this country. We’re a brand that’s all about consumer worship. The most important thing to us is how we connect to people. Whether it be in the United States or around the world.”
Like MTV Desi and MTV Chi, MTV K will tap into the pop culture being exported from Asia, delivering programming for an underserved immigrant community in America. The channel will feature Korean pop, hip hop and punk, presented in English by bilingual veejays. The channel, which will emanate from New York, will mix original programming and some content from Korea’s exploding pop music scene.
MTV K is available online at mtvk.com and on DirectTV, and soon will be added to Verizon’s broadband service (FiOS TV). Viewers can log on today to cast votes for the channel’s kickoff video.
Desi and Chi have not only tapped into the cultures of their communities, but have spurred a renaissance of sorts, said Durrani, giving a generation of artists a new outlet.
“When we first launched MTV Desi, I could have counted on my fingertips the well-known Desi artists,” he said. “We have brought about, I think, a whole emergence of authentic Desi-American culture and Chinese-American culture. We have seen a mini-explosion of talent coming out of the East Coast and the West Coast – playing, touring, making record deals.”
A concert at the MTV Studios in Times Square with Korean pop star Rain earlier this year was a milestone, he said.
“He’s a phenomenon in Korea, but he had not had a platform in the U.S.,” said Durrani. “We were stunned to find literally hundreds of young people lining up outside our building that morning. The response was incredible.”
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AP-NY-06-23-06 0746EDT
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