Multiplatform Viewing Saves MTV's VMAs Performance

Despite double-digit declines in its linear TV ratings, Sunday’s MTV Music Video Awards generated more than 73 million views across multiple platforms, the network said.

The live special drew more than 19 million total visits on MTV Digital, up 23% compared with last year, according to network officials, with streams to the MTV app increasing by 643% year to year.

The Miley Cyrus-hosted show also posted big numbers on social media sites, generating more than 100 million loops on online video sharing service Vine and garnering 64 million interactions on Instagram, MTV said.

The VMAs also pulled in 39 million Facebook interactions related to the show from 16 million Facebook users. On Twitter, 2.2 million people posted 21.4 million tweets about the show, with nearly 11.8 million people viewing those Tweets a total of 676 million times, the network said.

The show also generated 2.1 million views on YouTube.

The strong social media numbers compare favorably to the steep, consecutive year-to-year declines in television viewers to 5 million this year from 8.3 million in 2014 and 10.1 million 2013.

Overall, the show drew 9 million viewers across 10 networks that aired it live, below the 10 million viewers the show generated across four network the year prior, according to Nielsen.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.