MTV hit Europe in 1987.

Already established in the US, it was a gamble; the concept of one-brand television seemed alien and American in the European television market.A decade on, the single-brand approach is king in an increasingly global market where brand identity is the essence of success.

MTV now has four principal operations: MTV Europe, US, Asia, and MTV Latino, which services South America.In 1994 Gil Aronow arrived in the U K from MTV sister channel VH1 in the US as in-house counsel.

One of his first moves, in 1995, was to hire Svenja Geissmar, who was a five-year qualified competition lawyer from City firm Lovell White Durrant (now Lovells).In 1997 Mr Aronow returned to the US and Ms Geissmar took over as general counsel in the UK.

As senior vice-president of corporate affairs with MTV Networks Europe, the 36-year-old now heads a department of 15.

That includes seven in-house lawyers, and a trainee seconded from Richards Butler, one of the City firms which, with Olswang, and -- less frequently (for competition work) -- Linklaters, Bristows, and Denton Wilde Sapte, Ms Geissmar uses as external counsel.Since joining the board of MTV Europe, Ms Geissmar has had more of an eye on the bigger strategic questions: new MTV joint ventures, and territorial expansion issues.

Once the channel opens in new territories, it localises and builds up a stream of programming specific to the region, including music most popular to the local viewers.

In addition, in the European territories there is a European feed: common programmes that go to all countries in the territories featuring the best known artists, music awards and news.MTV's legal team develops in sync with the larger business.

Branching out from its first European foothold in the UK, the channel has gone on to start local channels in Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, Holland and France and the Nordic region.

There are lawyers based on the ground in Milan (to service MTV Italy) and Munich (to service MTV Germany); the London team works for the UK, and the rest of Europe.MTV lawyers fall into two categories: creative lawyers, dealing with rights and regulatory clearances, and channel lawyers, assigned to particular channels.Ms Geissmar is clear about the qualities she looks form in her lawyers when recruiting: 'A combination of a very strong commercial background, good drafting skills, an outgoing and confident personality.

We are a young dynamic company, and this is a very demanding environment; no place for shrinking violets.

My staff need to form good contacts and relationships with client groups, take on responsibilities.'Channel lawyers at MTV have a diverse range of work: drafting commercial and employment contracts, responding to tax enquiries, looking at legal problems relating to Web sites attached to channels, and related new media legal problems.Kathryn David, a channel lawyer, has been with MTV for six months.

She qualified as a media litigator at Richards Butler -- from where she went on an earlier six-month secondment to MTV.

Her six-month probation period is almost up, but she will stay on.Ms David is responsible for Nordic and European regions of MTV.

This involves a certain degree of flexibility.

She explains: 'MTV Holland's advertisers recently concluded various contracts using Dutch law.

But I had to ensure that these were drafted to account for the British Independent Television Commission (ITC) regulations, because these regulations affect any content that originates in the UK, and the content of MTV Holland is largely beamed to Holland from London.''Generally I'm on hand to answer channels' queries when they have problems,' she explains.

'This can involve a whole range of issues, from video-jockeys with immigration problems, through threats to shut down broadcasting signals, to ensuring that a beach in Turkey where a televised beach party was taking place would be clean again the next morning.'As Ms David is the first point of contact in London for the Nordic channel, she h as been heavily involved in this year's European Music Awards, which will be taking place in Stockholm on 16 November 2000.

This has involved much logistical manoeuvring, but Ms David has experience, helping creative lawyer Nathalie Andre recently at the V2000 festival in Paris.Ms Andre arrived at the channel from London-based Radcliffes in 1995, just after qualifying at the private client firm.She has spent much of the past two years doing what many would consider a dream job -- watching television.

She did this as part of the compliance task -- ensuring that the content of all videos did not breach ITC standards.

The ITC lays down obligatory conditions relating to violence and swearing.

Ms Andre says: 'I have to make sure "f**king" only goes on after 9pm'.Ms Geissmar says keeping to the regulatory regime is always a judgement call.

She explains: 'We don't always get it right.

The ITC is our very own Big Brother.

If we want to play a video like Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up, we have to put it out at the appropriate time -- very late at night!'She says part of the compliance job can involve striking a balance at music festivals watched by 300 million viewers between the puppy-dog singers and the more anarchic artists, mixing Britney Spears with Marilyn Manson.Ms Andre now concentrates on events and festivals which form a mainstay of MTV's scheduling, such as the recent Paris V2000 concert, with stars such as Macy Gray, Travis, Coldplay and Supergrass.

After liaising with non-lawyers in the channel's 'talent team', she will obtain a list of artists featuring at events the channel wishes to televise.

She then obtains guest release forms from these artists.

These are permissions for the channel to air the material, and negotiate, draft and sign-off on agreements the channel may subsequently enter with co-producers, venue organisers, and other television channels also covering the event.She says: 'It very rarely goes wrong, because the consideration for most of these contracts is the promotional value the artists obtain from the channel's subsequent coverage.

The critical thing is to preserve good relations with the record companies, agents and artists, and to ensure that we have no trouble getting the releases.

This is very much a two-way business; we're all pulling in the same direction so its in all our interests to get things running smoothly.'In a fast-moving technological market, MTV is under pressure to stay ahead.

The Napster Web site -- now closed after being held in breach of copyright -- threatened MTV by offering free music over the Internet.

Every piece of music on MTV must have rights clearage from the artist's agent or the record label.

This was not the case with Napster, which offered it free to download from the Internet without permission.Ms David's Nordic territory is a place to watch from the point of view of new media technology.

Finland has the world's most advanced third generation mobile telephone market.

This makes it the litmus test for any developments, such as the new MTV Sonicnet Web site, which enables users to create their own radio stations on the Web.Ms Geissmar comments: 'We could easily have done the same as Napster, using our brand name to deliver free music over the Net, but we need to maintain our relationships in this business, and we are consolidating our Web sites.

In the UK we're up to ten million hits per month; in Italy we are up to 30 million.'Unsurprisingly, it is hard to find any lawyers working for MTV who regret their decisions to move out of private practice.

For Ms Geiss mar, the move has been a successful one.

'This company is a great environment for getting business experience', she says, adding: 'There are many American MTV lawyers who've moved into strategic corporate roles.

Board members give you real encouragement.

The approach is to get you to learn fast, and give you opportunities for broadening your experience.''There's a steep learning curve, but I have a lot more responsibility here than I would be getting if I was still in private practice,' says Ms Andre.

Although she says that the working day, which ends for her around eight o'clock, is intense, she has 'no regrets whatsoever' about making the move in-house.

'Everything you do is constantly interrupted by something else.

But you never know what you'll be doing next; being constantly harassed by people keeps me on my toes and into the job.'Ms David comments: 'If you combine what you love with a job that you love then you can't be going far wrong.' She is attracted by the chances to expand her role into different parts of the industry: 'This department sees everything that goes on in the company -- law has a bearing on everything.'