LONDON (Brand Republic) - MTVi, the internet division of the music network MTV, has laid off 105 of its staff and scrapped its plans for an IPO.
The job cuts, which represent a quarter of MTVi鈥檚 staff, will be made across marketing, editorial and technology support.
MTVi, which is a unit of Viacom, comprises the mtv.com, vh1.com, country.com and sonicnet.com websites The sites are believed to be struggling to make money and are set to be reorganised with a centralised editorial team providing content across all of the sites. Marketing operations will be tied in with respective television ventures.
MTVi鈥檚 chief executive Nicholas Butterworth said that, despite the layoffs, the company鈥檚 sites were attracting an increased number of visitors and that revenues were expected to more than double this year. Last year, revenues were $19.9m.
The company plans to begin selling digital music over the internet, in a partnership with digital audio company RioPort. Its main source of revenue, however, will continue to be advertising.