Appointment at Viacom’s Cable Group Puts Creativity in Focus

Viacom Inc. reached for the hit maker instead of the deal maker.

The entertainment giant Tuesday tapped one of its top cable executives, Judith McGrath, to be the new head of MTV Networks, continuing a tradition of putting a priority on creativity.

The 51-year-old McGrath, who has guided Viacom blockbusters such as “The Real World” and “The Osbournes,” succeeds the outgoing chief executive, Tom Freston, who was recently named Viacom’s co-president.

Her ascension resulted in a major casualty: Mark Rosenthal, a 22-year MTV veteran and a leading candidate for Freston’s job, resigned as president and chief operating officer of MTV Networks after being passed over.

The ongoing shuffle breaks up one of the most stable and successful management teams in the business, one that has worked with Freston for two decades.

Freston said the loss of Rosenthal, known for his negotiating skills and general business acumen, would be deeply felt. But he said McGrath was best suited to protect and nurture MTV Networks’ deeply rooted culture, symbolized by its “Creative first” mantra.

“Ours is a business of creative vision,” Freston said in a statement. “Judy is the perfect fit for this job.”

Other contenders for McGrath’s job tipped their hats to their new boss. “Nobody has better creative instincts than Judy,” said Herb Scannell, an executive who rose through the ranks at MTV Networks alongside McGrath. “She’s very inspiring.”

Although Scannell conceded that he had wanted the top job, he said he wouldn’t follow Rosenthal out the door.

“This is not a place I’d want to leave,” said Scannell, who as a group president oversees some of MTV’s U.S. channels, including Nickelodeon, SpikeTV, TV Land and Nick at Nite. McGrath was responsible for the rest, including MTV, VH1, Comedy Central.

Rosenthal was responsible for MTV Networks’ record-breaking performance in the recently concluded advertising selling season, said Jessica Reif Cohen, an analyst at Merrill Lynch. And he was instrumental in negotiating new contracts with cable operators that steadily increase the subscription fees that Viacom will receive over the coming decade.

But Reif Cohen applauded the promotion of McGrath, who is considered one of the most creative thinkers within the cable group, Viacom’s fastest-growing and largest unit.

McGrath was a Conde Nast copy chief before joining MTV in its on-air promotions department when the channel launched in 1981. She moved up fast, to run the flagship music channel.

Under her leadership, it diverged from its sole reliance on music videos, expanding into scripted lifestyle programming to keep teenagers from flipping the channels every five minutes. The upstart channel became a pop-culture phenomenon worldwide by churning out a steady diet of hits for the restless young viewers that advertisers most covet. MTV has been the No. 1 destination for teenagers for 12 consecutive years with hits such as “The Real World,” “The Osbournes” and “Punk’d.”

In an interview Tuesday, McGrath said her biggest challenge as chairman and chief executive of the network group would be in filling Freston’s shoes.

“It’s like following Eric Clapton or Miles Davis,” she said. “He’s beloved. But I’ve got to do it my way.”

She said she would aim to retain the group’s freewheeling, experimental, no-holds-barred spirit, while driving the group’s growth into the digital era.

Recently, as MTV Group president, McGrath guided the rebound in the ratings of VH1, brought the popular Comedy Central into the MTV Networks fold and spearheaded the launch of Logo, a new channel about gay lifestyles.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages called for her resignation early this year, after MTV produced the Super Bowl half-time show for CBS that resulted in Janet Jackson baring her breast.

Though MTV claimed it was unaware of Jackson’s plan, McGrath has said it was the worst moment in her career. She said Tuesday was one of her best. Asked how she felt, she said: “flattered, nervous, crazed and thrilled.”