MTV Buys IFilmMTV Buys IFilm

MTV Networks has acquired Internet video company IFilm Corp. for $49 million.

Under the deal, IFilm will remain in Los Angeles and continue to be run by chief executive Blair Harrison, who will report to Jason Hirschhorn, senior vice president of digital media for New York-based MTV.

IFilm, which aggregates and distributes online video featuring programming from Hollywood studios and amateur filmmakers, claims to have the largest library of short-form entertainment video on the Web. The purchase is part of MTV's strategy of delivering programming to all medium, on and off the Web.

"This move is at the heart of MTV Networks multi-platform strategy and meshes with our tradition of cultivating independent and creative brands," Judy McGrath, chairman and chief executive of MTV, said in a statement announcing the acquisition this week.

In addition, MTV, a unit of Viacom Inc., sees IFilm's growing traffic and high profile on the Web as helping to increase the entertainment network's online advertising revenue, McGrath said.

In September, IFilm had 2.6 million unique U.S. visitors, and MTV Networks had 11.3 million, according to Web metrics firm ComScore Networks. Among IFilm visitors, 708,000 visited MTV sites.

As a combined company, MTV and IFilm would have had 13.2 million unique visitors last month, according to ComScore. In June, more than 94 million people, or 56 percent of the online U.S. population, watched streaming video online.