Men are nerds, too, and SpikeTV has their backs

By Delen Goldberg

Friday, Oct. 21, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Spike TV, the cable network best known for airing “The Ultimate Fighter,” “MANswers” and other male-oriented television shows, is adding another attraction to its lineup: technology.

The station announced Thursday that it would partner exclusively with the Consumer Electronics Association to broadcast live coverage of the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show this January from the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas Hilton and Venetian.

CES is the world’s largest consumer technology trade show. Last year, it attracted 2,700 exhibitors and 140,000 attendees.

The convention is closed to the public, but Spike plans to bring the 20,000-plus gadgets, electronics and technology products that will debut at CES straight to people’s homes, computers, laptops and phones in real time. The network will air more than a dozen hours of live interviews and features on multiple platforms: Spike TV, Spike.com, GameTrailers.com, Facebook, via mobile phone and tablet, and even on giant video screens in New York City’s Times Square.

“We’re excited to partner with CEA and bring CES to audiences like never before on live television,” Spike TV executive Jon Slusser said. “Cultural events like CES will offer our viewers a first look at the things they’ll be playing, watching and talking about in the next year, and Spike’s ‘CES All Access Live’ multi-platform program offerings will deliver a front row seat to all the action.”

The effort is designed to offer a sneak peek of innovations to the people who will likely use them most: men ages 18 to 49. While Spike TV, a division of MTV Networks, no longer markets itself as a network for men, it still aims its programming directly at that demographic.

Spike participated in a similar collaboration this summer during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, a video game conference in Los Angeles, and the venture was a smash success. Spike’s television coverage was the most watched programming by young men in its time slot and was the most streamed event in Viacom history. It attracted more than 10 million viewers.

Slusser, who just this month was named to the newly created position of senior vice president of sports and multi-platform programming, is trying to grow the company’s brand with live-broadcast, multi-platform, socially driven events. As part of that mission, Spike is expanding its live coverage of mixed martial arts and will live broadcast several more events in 2012, including E3 and ComiCon.