MTV Conquers Europe; Russian Front Next : Media: The video music channel is in 46 million homes overseas and may soon surpass all U.S. cable outlets abroad.

Bill Roedy, a former U.S. Army officer, used to manage NATO nuclear bases in Italy on military alert. Now, as president of MTV Europe, he is commanding another kind of invasion.

This one involves winning the hearts and minds--or at least the eyes and ears--of European youth. The video music channel already reaches 46 million homes in Europe, and Roedy predicts it will soon surpass all American cable channels overseas.

Indeed, MTV is about to greatly expand its presence in the former Soviet Union under a deal with Biz Enterprises, a Moscow entertainment company run by Russian media mogul Boris Zosimov. Five different TV channels in the Commonwealth of Independent States will broadcast a total of 42 hours of MTV each week.

The one-year, hard-currency deal should put MTV into an additional 88 million homes throughout Russia. Roedy believes it will provide a “cultural and musical window to Europe.”

For social scientists and philosophers who worry that the unchecked spread of American popular culture has already coarsened the virtue of international youth, this may not be welcome news. But for Roedy, a second-generation West Point graduate, MTV’s conquest of Europe reflects nothing less than the collapse of communism. He remembers German youths waving flags with the MTV logo from atop the Berlin Wall as it crumbled in 1989.

“I was in Prague a couple weeks ago and MTV was playing on the airport TV channel monitors,” he said. “I’ve watched it on a kibbutz in Israel and at the base of Masada” on the Dead Sea. . . . We’re getting a 15 rating in Slovakia!”

Cultural significance aside, Roedy said MTV Europe is now a viable business. Revenue, 80% of which comes from advertisers and the rest from license fees, is expected to reach $60 million to $70 million this year. Roedy said MTV Europe has been financially “self-sufficient” for the last two years.

The service, however, is not a clone of its American parent. While MTV in the United States increasingly resembles a conventional cable channel with a range of programs, MTV Europe sticks to music videos.

“We stay away as much as possible from non-music programming,” Roedy said, in part because music travels best across Europe’s myriad language and cultural borders. A European version of VH-1 is now in development.

Nonetheless, Roedy wants to do more “pro-social” programs such as the recent one in which MTV explored the issue of “tolerance” and “took up risky subjects” such as the resurgence of Neo-Nazism. MTV’s conclusion: “The neo-Nazi movement is not only based in Germany. It’s everywhere.” Although reliable ratings information is difficult to come by because Europe, unlike the United States, does not have a universal ratings system, MTV officials say the network is watched by 5 million households daily for a minimum of 15 minutes.

“We have over 200 advertisers now,” Roedy said, pulling out a sheaf of computer printouts detailing advertising expenditures by company on MTV Europe.

The largest category now is sneaker companies. “Until recently it was movie companies.” He said 15% of the advertisers are Japanese consumer electronics companies.

Based in London, MTV Europe has a full-time staff of 300 employees, only seven of whom are American.

Next month, Roedy is moving his staff into the tony former offices of London’s TV-AM, one of the broadcasters that lost their licenses in the recent round of franchise auctions.

The staff has worked out of a former textile mill for the last 5 1/2 years, but the new facility comes complete with studios, cameras, editing bays--a complete turnkey operation, Roedy said.

“Even the paper clips are there,” he said.