Smart move by MTV — distributed branding:

The network, which already has 150 Web sites in 162 countries, plans to build literally thousands more, hoping to draw viewers by letting them watch, contribute and even re-edit its television shows.

“People tend to find content on the Internet through thousands of front doors as opposed to one,” said Mika Salmi, the new digital president of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc..

Not so much distributed branding, but distributed media, for sure. Rather than trying to be all things to all people in one place, MTV is reorganizing around the reality of the web — that niches play well and people don’t usually drill down into deep, broad web sites.