Vice goes big time

CNN reports on a couple of big moves over at MTV, designed to make the brand cooler in the eyes of its target market.

MTV is reportedly going niche, thanks to a new network of websites called Flux. The network will be made up of Viacom heavyweights, including MTV.com and ComedyCentral.com, and hundreds of other sites.

Registered users will be allowed to personalize pages with blogs, video, photos and online friends essentially turning all of its online holdings - and any partner sites - social. Advertising and functionality for the network will be handled by Social Project, formerly known as TagWorld.

The MTV relationship also includes a minor investment in VBS.TV, an ad-supported travel site launched by Vice Magazine. Vice is roughly reminiscent of MTV in the early '80s - a "hip" media destination. Spike Jonze is its editorial director, and the Vice film "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" got good reviews at its debut last week.

Vice will produce shows for the main MTV channel and will pitch in on two virtual worlds modeled after London's club scene and New York's Lower East Side, currently a trendy enclave.