"We felt it was time to rejuvenate music videos and repackage them primarily in response to our audience," said Van Toffler general manager for MTV's Music Television service.

MTV is owned by Viacom Inc, which also owns sister music channel VH1, the Paramount Pictures film studio and Blockbuster Video.

After years of criticism from the music industry for focusing attention on non-music shows like Jenny McCarthy's "Singled Out" and "Beavis and Butt-head", MTV in the past year has begun to shift more emphasis back on music programming.

But noting the novelty of music videos was no longer there, Toffler said MTV has sought new ways to promote songs and artists on TV in addition to airing songs in video form.

"We let audience know more about the artists, whether we do it historically ortongue-in-cheek," Toffler said in an interview.

Its new shows include "Artist Cut," which features a performer describing the making of a video or a song, "Biorhythm," a celebrity biography series, and "Revue," a profile show that includes performances.

"We're still going to be about videos, but it's about putting the artists in context for the audience so you help create a groundswell of loyalty," Toffler said.

The rejigging in programming appears to have paid off for MTV, which has seen its ratings surge.

Total household ratings were up 25 per cent to 0.5 in the second quarter and its prime-time ratings were up 17 per cent to 0.7 for the same period, according to Nielsen Media Research. A full rating point equals 700,000 households.

Analysts also are projecting a rise in MTV's sales to about $520 million this year from $473 million in 1997.

But while MTV's impact on album sales is still central to the music business, it faces more competition from VH1, the Black Entertainment Channel (BET), andTime Warner Inc's WB channel for its core 12-year-old to 34-year-old audience.

And experts say nothing has had the same broad national impact as MTV in the 1980s when it was a 24-hour music channel and caused an explosion in the video business.

"MTV has never quite recovered from the days of Michael Jackson's `Thriller'. That was one of the huge successes in their early years and what put the music videos and MTV on the map," said Larry Gerbrandt, industry analyst at Paul Kagan Associates.

"They keep hoping for another music phenomenon like that in the '90s but there's been no acts that captured both the music scene and visual imagery as well," he said.

Indeed, major record companies have scaled back on music videos, long considered a vital promotional tool, as the window of opportunity for exposure on MTV has narrowed.

"We're long past the days of thinking a video on MTV is going to break a record. Playing a video in a void is meaningless," said Al Cafaro, chief executive officer of A&M Records, alabel owned by PolyGram NV.

"Its very difficult to get videos to MTV -- they have ratings to concern themselves with and have to be mindful of other networks. MTV needs a hit song by a hit artist to provide value. The outlets for video are still in short supply," Cafaro said.

Cafaro and other music executives say the wise move from a record company standpoint is to approach MTV only after a song or a new artist has a presence on radio and at retail.

"We wait until we have a real story on radio," said Cafaro, who said this paid off handsomely with a video called "Power Trip" by Monster Magnet that has been getting airplay.

Toffler admits it is harder to get videos on MTV, but argues the channel has found some new artists like Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia before she was embraced by radio.

"It is harder to get videos on MTV, but once there, we let audience know more about the stars," he said.

Imbruglia took home the best new artist award for her hit video "Torn" on Thursday at the 15th annualMTV Video Music Awards. The awards usually mean a pickup in sales.

Pop diva Madonna picked up six honours at the awards show.