Music Video's Mellower Mood

For all its gyrating and earsplitting success, MTV, cable television's 24-hour music-video channel, has been unable to attract some of the largest U.S. advertisers. The network's rock offerings are targeted to younger viewers whose tastes may run more to soft drinks and blue jeans than to refrigerators and expensive family cars. Last week MTV announced plans to go after an older, mellower and more affluent set. The broadcaster said that next January it will introduce a second all-music channel designed to appeal to listeners aged 25 to 49. Its format may be a blend of jazz, country-and-western and pop tunes.

The new channel will probably pit MTV directly against Ted Turner, another cable pioneer, whose holdings include the Cable News Network and SuperStation WTBS. This week Turner is expected to announce plans for a music channel that would offer pop, rock, rhythm and blues, and country.

The MTV move came soon after its owners, American Express and Warner Communications, made an initial public offering of 5.1 million shares of MTV stock. The video purveyor now hopes to make many of its new investors loyal viewers as well.