MTV launches global Snapchat series called 'Show Us Ur Phone'

MTV International, the worldwide arm of the music and youth culture network, said that each series would have eight to 10 episodes on Snapchat, the social media platform whose messages vanish.

"Show Us Ur Phone," launched with the announcement, is a game show in which a host ambushes couples on the street and grills them about what's on their partner's phone. VThe series, which will later air on MTV television in Britain, has as its host Charlotte Crosby, a star of "Geordie Shore," a spinoff of reality series "Jersey Shore" set in the north of England.

Series to debut later in the year on Snapchat are "MTV Sex Squad," aimed at giving frank answers to sexual questions, and "MTV Threads" that will look at musicians' fashions.

MTV, which revolutionized the music industry in the 1980s through videos, has evolved more broadly into a youth culture network with global ambitions. With traditional television viewing on the wane among young people, MTV has increasingly focused its efforts on social media. Snapchat has been especially popular among the millennial generation as young people move away from the permanent data collection of more established platforms such as Facebook.

MTV launched a channel known as International Snapchat Discover early last year, winning an audience with a variety of short pop culture and lifestyle segments.