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player ready...Universal Music Group, hoping to find a new way to promote its product in the face of falling album sales, is considering launching a music-video network.
The company hopes to differentiate its channel from MTV and Fuse by playing uncensored songs, the Los Angeles Times reports. Universal is talking with satellite-TV provider DirecTV about launching the channel.
Representatives from both companies are keeping quiet. The new channel would be called 1 AM, shorthand for the 1st Amendment, in keeping with the idea of not bleeping out any lyrics or blurring any images in its videos. One of its partners in the deal is Vivid Entertainment, a major player in the porn industry.
Universal and Vivid would each have a 45 percent stake in 1 AM, the paper reports, with talent agency Endeavor and Shady Records, a Universal label run by rap star Eminem, each getting 5 percent.
Should it go forward, 1 AM would be available only as a premium channel, similar to HBO or Showtime. Universal hopes to have 1 AM launched by the summer.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and Victoria Rodriguez ([email protected])