Viacom's
(NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTVN Entertainment Group today announced the launch of
Atom.com, a digital comedy network that distributes original programming
across the Internet, handheld devices, gaming platforms, mobile phones,
television and other gadgets still to be invented. Atom.com offers a
cornucopia of professionally produced comedy and provides indie and UGC
creators with a clear path to "go pro" themselves -- earning infamy, money and
a direct path to exposure and future development opportunities on the Web,
television and beyond.

With the launch, Atom.com becomes COMEDY CENTRAL's exclusive partner and
anchor brand for original digital comedy content, developing new properties
for multiplatform distribution, building an online community of creators and
viewers, and producing a half-hour TV series, "Atom TV," that debuted on
COMEDY CENTRAL this week.

"We want Atom.com to provoke, break rules and uncover talent much as
COMEDY CENTRAL did at its inception on cable," said Erik Flannigan, EVP,
digital media, MTVN Entertainment Group. "If we get this right, Atom.com will
be our punk-rock label and help to bring fresh, provocative comedy to every
screen our audience is watching."

"Atom delivers Web comedy the way nature intended -- random, timely and
out-of-touch with normal standards of good taste," said Scott Roesch, general
manager, Atom.com. "We couldn't ask for a better partner than COMEDY CENTRAL
as we begin this quest for comedy talent, convergent sponsorship sales,
multiplatform distribution and, of course, global domination."

 

Original Digital Comedy Programming

Atom.com's programming lineup features daily new releases of original
comedy including animation, live-action narrative, topical videos, sketch
comedies and spoofs. The site also offers a library of thousands of comedy
productions previously developed by, licensed by and uploaded to AtomFilms and
COMEDY CENTRAL.

 

At launch, Atom.com is premiering four new Web series including:

 

-- "Border Patrol," produced by Josh Greenbaum, Ben McMillan and comedy
legend Ivan Reitman ("Old School," "Ghostbusters"), centers on three slacker
friends who spend their weekends in lawn chairs at the Mexican border
determined to stop illegal immigration. Demonstrating Atom's direct pipeline

 

to COMEDY CENTRAL, "Border Patrol" is the first Atom Original to sign a
Webisode-to-episode on-air development deal with the network.

 

-- "Steven & Stephen," from "Adult Swim" stars Tim Heidecker & Eric
Wareheim ("Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!"), about two
groin-conjoined, Internet-obsessed twins.

 

-- "Stickman Exodus," from Waverly Films, in which stick figures, doodled
into existence by a bored high-school student, search for the "promised page"
in the kid's notebook.

 

-- "Benny, Escaped Convict," co-created by television writer Ryan Levin
("Scrubs") and award-winning animator Nye Warburton, chronicles the exploits
of a foulmouthed rodent on the lam.

 

Atom.com is also in production on dozens more original properties that
will debut in coming months, including: "My Best Friend Is My Penis," starring
Jon Togo ("CSI Miami"); topical pop culture videos from a stable of creators
including Blame Society Productions ("Chad Vader"); the gaming parody "Legend
of Neil" and the urban legend comedy series "Never Do This."

 

Atom.com -- Where Funny Videos Go Pro

The new Atom.com Web site will replace both AtomFilms.com (a 2008 Webby
Award finalist) and AtomUploads.com, bringing professionally produced titles
and amateur comedy content together on one site. Visitors will find an
entirely new Website design and thousands of videos, animations and Flash
games. Each title is classified in one of two states: "Pro Videos"
(developed or licensed by Atom) and "User Videos" (content uploaded to Atom).
To provide a direct path for User Videos to go Pro, Atom has expanded its
"Upload Showdown" competition. Each week, the audience watches and votes on
top new User Videos, determining which should join the ranks of Atom's Pro
Videos, earning not only site promotion but a distribution and licensing
contract offer with additional royalty payments via Atom's revenue sharing
program and carriage across Atom's distribution channels including "Atom TV"
on COMEDY CENTRAL.

The site's other new features include a streamlined UGC upload system,
social networking profiles and content-sharing features powered by MTVN's Flux
network, higher-quality video streaming and a Creator's Kit featuring dozens
of royalty-free music beds, including contributions from "Juno" composer Matt
Messina.

 

A Next-Gen Advertising Model

The COMEDY CENTRAL alliance and a suite of new features will allow the
MTVN Entertainment Group to offer Atom.com as a unique value proposition to
advertisers and sponsors. The new Atom features diverse video advertising
opportunities including non-interruptive overlay ads, deeply branded UGC
competitions, and multiplatform buys that extend across Atom.com, Atom TV and
beyond.

Leveraging its capabilities and relationships in original content
development, Atom will also offer end-to-end branded-entertainment programs
for advertisers that want to be part of the entertainment experience itself.
For example, "Agency," currently in development, offers sponsors product
integration central to the storyline, chronicling the efforts of a fictitious
small-town ad agency as they fumble their way to build an actual advertising
campaign for a real client.

 

Atom on Every Screen

The digital comedy network based at Atom.com extends far beyond the Web
site, reaching almost every screen that plays video. On television, "Atom TV"
(TV-MA) features top Atom titles (including "Upload Showdown" winners) on
COMEDY CENTRAL every Monday night at 2:00 a.m. Atom content also appears
periodically on Spike TV and Logo. On mobile phones, Atom has prominent
channels on Verizon Wireless' V CAST as well as AT&T's CV and AllTel. Via the
Internet, Atom is featured on iTunes, AOL, AT&T, Bebo, Dailymotion, Veoh, xBox
Live and many more leading web destinations. All of these partnerships not
only give consumers easy access to Atom content, but drive additional exposure
and revenue for creators in Atom's revenue sharing program.

"There is a lot of hilarious stuff in the Atom pipeline and the new
Atom.com online community is off to a great start," said Flannigan. Tapping
Comedy Central's halo for advertising and promotion along with our
multi-platform strategy make us far less reliant on one-off viral 'hits' to
sustain and grow the business. Our diversified marketing and distribution
offers a deeper reach into our core demographic: post-viral, twenty-something
guys who live online."

 

About Atom.com

Atom.com, a division of Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks,
is a digital comedy network for young men that reaches millions of consumers
each month on the Atom.com Web site and millions more through multiplatform
distribution on television, mobile phones, and the Internet. Drawing on a
strategic partnership with COMEDY CENTRAL and its own 10-year history of
online video innovation and leadership (formerly as AtomFilms), Atom.com
delivers Web comedy like nobody else.

 

About COMEDY CENTRAL

COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more
than 95 million homes nationwide. COMEDY CENTRAL is owned by, and is a
registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned division of Viacom
Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks. COMEDY CENTRAL's Internet address
is www.comedycentral.com. For up-to-the-minute and archival press information
and photographs visit Press Central, COMEDY CENTRAL's press Web site at
www.comedycentral.com/press.

 

SOURCE MTVN Entertainment Group