ABC promotes shows with music videos

By Gail Schiller

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - ABC is producing music videos for several of its new and returning shows, including "Ugly Betty," "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Dancing With the Stars" and "Brothers and Sisters."

The videos -- 11 are expected by the end of the season -- will air on ABC.com and in some cases on such other platforms as iTunes, ABC Mobile and the network itself.

After a successful run last season with music videos for "Grey's," "Betty" and "Lost," ABC is relying much more heavily on the marketing tactic -- which also helps promote the artists' songs -- to launch its new season.

For the upcoming season of "Ugly Betty," ABC produced a music video with British pop singer Mika, who re-recorded his hit single "Big Girl" with new lyrics. The music video -- which features Mika recording the new version of the song "Betty Girl," footage from his "Big Girl" video and scenes from Season 1 of "Betty" -- will premiere Thursday on ABC.com. The song also will be featured on-air in ABC's promo spots for "Betty."

In the case of "Housewives," ABC produced a music video to reggae youngster Sean Kingston's chart-topping "Beautiful Girls." It wove clips from all the past seasons of the suburban soap with footage from the upcoming season and shots from Kingston's own music video. It premiered July 27 and is available on ABC.com.

ABC is believed to be the only network using music videos to promote its shows. Since the music videos are mutually beneficial to ABC and the record labels/artists, the network does not pay licensing fees to use footage from already existing music videos, nor does it pay the artists when they appear in footage shot especially for the ABC videos.

Last season, ABC produced three music videos for "Grey's" -- for Brandi Carlile's "The Story," the Fray's "How to Save a Life" and Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars." The "Chasing Cars" video made it onto iTunes' top 10 list after it aired during the closing moments of the "Grey's" season finale.

ABC also produced a music video for "Lost" combining footage from the show with Brian McFadden's music video "Demons," and a music video for "Ugly Betty" featuring an original song by Jason Mraz.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter