For a while there, MTV (NYSE: VIA) owned the video music world, becoming as much a part of pop culture and music entertainment as the artists it showcased. But, as the broadcast nets learned to much chagrin, that kind of ownership rarely lasts. Now broadband is doing the same thing to MTV—and it’s widened the playing field to include some of the same entities once viewed primarily as partners. (It’s also made music videos freakin’ ubiquitous online.) Ron Grover at BusinessWeek nominates Universal Music, aggressive leader Doug Morris and Universal-backed International Music Feed as a potential MTV killer. IMF wants to be a cable/satellite channel—it’s on Echostar’s Dish Network—but it’s primarily broadband while MTV is fully distributed. (This isn’t Fox taking on CNBC and starting with 30 million homes.)The content: music video deals across the board with, according to BW, the exception of the WMG catalog. IMF supplies the music video channels on Joost and two mobile music video channels for Vodafone. Universal execs claim profitability two years after launch but fewer than 50,000 monthly uniques.

MTV’s real competition—and Universal/IMF’s—is the widening of the music universe online and the increasing ubiquity of content.