Viacom restructures MTV Europe

Viacom has revamped top management roles at MTV Europe, putting president Brent Hansen in sole charge of its two music TV channels, MTV and VH-1.

Before the move, Hansen shared the top role with the co-president Peter Einstein. Einstein is to become president of Viacom’s new Middle-Eastern satellite venture, Gulf DTH – a pay-TV channel based in London and Dubai comprising seven channels. It was launched in the spring as a joint venture between Viacom and the Kuwaiti investment company Kitco.

Hansen was previously described as the “creative” president of MTV and its sister channel VH-1, with responsibility for editorial, marketing and publicity. Einstein was seen as the “commercial” president. He had responsibility for legal, commercial and financial matters.

Hansen says there will be further moves to “clarify” the structure of the company: “The creative feel of MTV has always been its strongest point. We want to take the creative effort on strongly and concentrate on the product.”

He denies that outsiders are likely to be brought in, but MTV is believed to be looking for a marketing manager to report to marketing director Sanjay Nazarelli.