Update: MTV and Thumbplay both contacted us to clarify a few points of their deal that got lost in the minutiae when it was brought to our attention on Friday. For starters, the deal is not exclusive to Thumbplay, despite some lingering confusion on their part on this point. MTV Mobile still has a few smaller deals with third parties to distribute limited amounts of content on other channels. And there’s also MTV’s numerous on-deck deals with carriers, which are a completely different side of their business. Thumbplay is now managing the backend of MTV Mobile’s storefront, but has little to do with any MTV Mobile content sold elsewhere. “We still control the distribution directly with carriers,” said Jeremiah Zinn, senior VP of syndication and operations. The deal with Thumbplay does not include any licensing component and is primarily based around MTV Mobile’s branded subscription services such as ringtones, alerts and WAP sites. “While on-deck is something that’s really our bread and butter today, we’re seeing off-deck starting to grow,” Zinn added. “We can make this scale with off-deck.” Finally, MTV told us it dropped Motricity to make a deal with Thumbplay because of the latter’s greater experience with tie-ins to on-air programming and the marketing and promotion related to those access points for consumers.

Thumbplay, a mobile content distributor, said it has signed a deal with MTV Mobile to exclusive content on its site manage its storefront. The deal includes at least 75,000 pieces of content, and adds up to 2,000 more every week. Are Traasdahl, Thumbplay’s CEO and founder, told us a majority of their MTV-related sales are generated from blurbs that MTV Networks’ channels tie in to on-air programming. Although MTV offers a lot of marketing power, they’ll have to be vigilant about referring traffic to Thumbplay. Under the deal, Thumbplay will provide customer service and work with MTV to build up the MTV Mobile catalog. “It’s a great brand in terms of the audience that we are targeting, both from the reach that they have on television and the reach that they have online,” Traasdahl said. MTV Mobile content such as ringtones, applications, games and wallpapers will be available a la carte or via subscription-based credits with Thumbplay.

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