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The iconic MTV reality series, which ran for 32
seasons between 1992 and 2017, will return as three interactive
series on Facebook in the United States, Mexico and Thailand
early next year, MTV will announce on Wednesday at Mipcom, the
annual television industry trade show in Cannes, France.
The show will be shown exclusively on the Facebook Watch
service, and will include interactive elements that let viewers
shape the show. It will be co-produced by MTV and owned by
Viacom Inc and Bunim/Murray Productions (BMP), the studio behind
the original series.
The launch represents another investment by the world's largest
social network to get its 2 billion users to spend more time on
Facebook by watching professionally produced content.
Facebook has struggled to draw users to the year-old Watch
service, which is anchored by much longer videos than the short
clips popular in Facebook's news feed. Facebook has said
viewership is growing.
"'MTV’s The Real World' helped to define a generation and
created a new genre of television with a simple yet powerful
idea of connecting people from wildly divergent backgrounds to
find common ground on the issues that often divided them," MTV
President Chris McCarthy said in a statement. "By partnering
with Facebook Watch and BMP, we have the opportunity to impact
culture and create a new genre of television all over again,
while engaging the next generation of content consumers around
the world."
The relaunch is part of Viacom's push to launch new shows under
its own brand across networks that it does not own, as well as
streaming services and social platforms.
The company has notably avoided launching big aggregated
streaming services such as those planned by rivals Walt Disney
Co and AT&T Inc's WarnerMedia.
It has sold Nickelodeon shows to Netflix, including "Pinky
Malinky" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender."
For the "Real World" reboot, Viacom decided Facebook's younger
audiences would be a better fit than its flagship network.
Viacom's studio strategy is expected to generate about $1
billion in revenue, Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish has said
recently. The company's Paramount television studio, responsible
for Amazon Video's "Jack Ryan" spy series, currently makes about
$400 million in revenue.
(Reporting by Kenneth Li; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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