FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LULLABOT USES DRUPAL TO ENHANCE MTV.CO.UK
Lullabot also responsible for user front-end experience on
MTV's newest online destination mtvflux.co.uk
London - August 21, 2006 - Lullabot (www.lullabot.com) has partnered with MTV Networks UK & Ireland to provide back-end support and management to the newly updated mtv.co.uk consumer website. Using Drupal technology the site will continue to host news and information for all of MTV UK's current broadcast channels but will provide an enhanced user experience through use of Drupal's community ready core functionality.
In addition Lullabot will also enable the site to act as the user front-end for MTV UK's new multi-platform channel called "MTV Flux", again using Drupal technology, enabling viewers to interact with MTV and each other.
Angel Gambino, VP Commercial Strategy & Digital Media, MTV Networks UK & Ireland, said "Our users now have the ability to create and upload content to mtvflux.co.uk that will also be showcased on the broadcast channel. Drupal's social networking capabilities make it a good match for our local development team's needs and the software's extensibility has allowed the creation of modules to interact with our on-air systems as well as SMS mobile and Flash-based interactive systems."
The Lullabot team worked with the MTV UK Digital Media design and development teams as well as designs from Preloaded (www.preloaded.com), to architect and develop a future-proof Drupal installation that is easily expandable and upgradeable. Drupal was chosen for its flexible and well-tested API, wealth of contributed modules, and thriving developer base, as well as Drupal's community-ready core functionality. The new system greatly improves the content input process for MTV UK's production department and provides separate role-based user permissions for site administrators, editors, content-moderators and normal users.
The mtv.co.uk site will run Drupal version 4.7 with patches that Lullabot has contributed to the next release of Drupal due this fall. It makes heavy use of the Content Construction Kit modules, as well as Image, Buddylist, PrivateMsg, Views, VotingAPI, Webform and others. The site also makes extensive use of Drupal's taxonomy system, allowing free-tagging of most content, classifications by on-air channel and RSS feeds for most listings on the site.
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About Drupal
Drupal is an open source web content management system licensed under the GPL. It is maintained and developed by thousands of users and developers. The software allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a great variety of content on a website. Originally written by Dries Buytaert, the PHP-based software is used to power an exponentially growing list of sites on the web.
About Lullabot
Lullabot, a U.S.-based company, has created websites for Ringo Starr, Participant Productions, Leo Laporte's This Week In Tech, television star Rhonda Britten of Starting Over, the BBC and many others. Lullabot's contributions to the Drupal project include: the URL aliasing system, the ecommerce package, sIFR, TinyMCE, and countless bug fixes and features, plus extensive documentation, videocasts, and the weekly Drupal podcast. The team will be leading a series of Drupal workshops in San Francisco this October.
About MTV Networks UK & Ireland
MTV Networks is the largest television network in the world and a leading creator of programming and content across all media platforms, with 111 channels and 94 websites reaching more than 440 million households in 167 countries worldwide.
MTV Networks UK & Ireland operates 3 channel groups - Comedy, Kids and Music.
Our 9 branded music channels comprise of MTV, VH1, MTV Hits, MTV Base, MTV Dance, MTV2, MTV Flux, VH1 Classic and TMF. They feature the best in music alongside popular shows such as Pimp My Ride, Newlyweds, Punk'd, Dirty Sanchez and Cribs. MTV Network's music channels are available on Sky, Cable (through ntl & Telewest) and Freeview, reaching larger audiences than at any time in UK history, with an average of over 17 million viewers each month according to BARB research.
Paramount and Nickelodeon in the UK are part of the MTV Networks International portfolio of channels through joint ventures with BSKYB.
In addition, MTV Networks is a pioneer in the new and exciting world of digital media, winning awards for its interactive and online services, as well as being the first media company to offer made-for-mobile 3G video content. Since 2005 MTV Networks UK & Ireland has offered mobile distribution of four TV channels (MTV Snax, MTV Trax, Paramount and Nickelodeon). In 2006 MTV Networks UK & Ireland launched MTV Overdrive, an on-demand, online, broadband entertainment and music service and MTV Flux, the UK's first fully interactive 360 degree community network across online, mobile and television.
MTV Networks is a unit of Viacom.
For more information, please contact:
Lullabot - Liza Kindred
+1.877.585.5226
press@lullabot.com
www.lullabot.com
MTV Press Contact - Tessa Tennyson
MTV Contact Number - +44 (0)207 284 6214
tennyson.tessa@mtvne.com
www.mtv.co.uk