Profile... MTV's Roedy keeps faith with localisation drive

If Bill Roedy sometimes sounds like a man dedicated to the party line it may be because, after almost 20 years at MTV, he is the party line. He more than anyone is responsible for creating, and honing, the broadcaster’s corporate image. As chairman and CEO of MTV Networks International, Roedy - you have to admit - fits the bill quite well. The internet is awash with photos of the tireless 59-year-old rubbing shoulders with global pop stars, assorted entertainers, and politicians.

The pictures provide an apt summary of a TV network that has come to define mainstream youth branding. Cracking Roedy’s corporate veneer, accordingly, is a tricky task. “He embodies MTV,” says one industry observer. “He’s the classic corporate MTV guy, and it’s always been difficult to get them to say anything.”

In Asia, however, the party line doesn’t quite wash. MTV’s fortunes have, to put it mildly, been mixed in recent years. Dogged by instability, the iconic youth channel has seen a succession of senior-level executives depart, including ad sales leaders Toby Hayward and Chris Stewart and, more recently, regional chief Amit Jain, youth research expert Ian Stewart and Japan/Korea MD Peter Bullard. Restructurings, meanwhile, have also taken their toll, with 84 staff departing the regional operation in 2005, amid concerns that the network has been too focused on ‘quick-fix’ solutions to the challenge of maintaining its credibility with Asia’s increasingly digital-focused youth.

Not that Roedy is about to admit to any of this. Instead he sees the developments as a simple consequence of the philosophy with which he spurred such success for MTV during the 90s: localisation. “My whole thing is local, local, local,” says Roedy. “We’ve gone from three hubs to a much more localised operation, so all three hubs have shrunk. Unfortunately that does result in personnel loss. It’s just the nature of our business. Any global company has to stay focused on their structure because it’s a dynamic marketplace.”

Roedy talks the local game as good as anyone, but others are less convinced. On-stage at last year’s Casbaa (Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia) convention he faced a moderator asking him why MTV’s Asian content tended towards the cookie-cutter - a claim that echoed comments made by several industry observers in Media. 

Asking Roedy about it again, it seems clear that a nerve has been struck. “She probably reads your magazine and doesn’t watch our channel,” he says, tetchily, of the Casbaa moderator. 

“You have to adapt to the current marketplace and you have to be completely vertically connected. If there is a cookie that does work worldwide we’ll use it.”

Clearly, for a man who has built his professional reputation on localising content, the charge that MTV is too generic is a painful one to swallow, but he does admit that things have changed a little. “Content is still largely driven locally - but we have seen when you produce high-cost productions they can travel very well, so we’re just trying to be a little smarter,” he explains. “For a lot of our content we’ve seen that if we can adapt it, it can actually travel better. The needle is shifting a little bit.”

Roedy’s role involves more than just MTV -  though the music channel clearly remains dear to his heart. There’s also the likes of Nickelodeon and VH1 to keep him busy. They are great TV brands in an increasingly digital age. The emergence of digital has proved challenging for a business that built its model around music consumption via TV. If MTV has been slow to embrace digital, it is hardly unique among TV networks, and Roedy admits that monetisation remains a critical issue. 

“It’s never enough, and it’s early days” he says. “When it comes to monetising it, you always want it to go faster. We’re doing different types of advertising, integrating online with the show, integrating programming with the commercial message. The challenge is the different buyers and different structures. It’s a growth business, though, so we focus more on the opportunities.”

Despite its difficulties in Asia, it is hard to overstate the influence that MTV has been able to wield on the world’s youth as one of the most successful consumer brands of the past 30 years. Ask Roedy about his career highlights and he gives you a box-seat tour of some of the defining global events of the past 20 years: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the USSR, China’s liberalisation, Hong Kong’s handover to China.
That schedule shows no sign of letting up — last year’s Casbaa event was just one stop on a punishing series of engagements that, it has to be said, shows little evident impact on the MTV man’s appearance or enthusiasm.

One event provides perhaps the best indication of Roedy’s abiding passion - the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which led to MTV revamping its annual awards into a highly-successful relief show at the last minute.

Indeed, Roedy is as well known today for his social work as he is for his leadership of MTV. An experienced advocate on HIV and AIDS, Roedy has led MTV’s groundbreaking campaigns to promote education and lessen the disease’s stigma and is a UNAIDS ambassador as well as the founding chair of the Global Media AIDS Initiative Leadership Committee. Roedy’s advice for companies looking to become more socially responsible, therefore, is refreshingly simple and non-corporate.

“I don’t care about sincerity - just do it,” he explains. “Sign up, commit your airtime. Do this stuff because it helps your brand and your employees - it’s good for your consumers too. I don’t care what your deep-down motivation is, just do it.”

Bill Roedy’s CV

2007 Chairman and CEO, MTV Networks International
1994 President, MTV Networks International; chairman, MTV Networks Europe
1989 Chief executive and MD, MTV Networks Europe
1979 Manager, national accounts, HBO