Is MTV hurting or helping Skateboarding?

Over the past few years, MTV has moved away from action sports competition events (i.e. Sports & Music Festival, Triple Threat) to more reality base TV shows featuring skateboarders. First was "Jackass", then "Viva la Bam" featuring Element sponsored rider Bam Margera. Now the new crop is "Rob & Big" with Rob Dyrdek , and "Life of Ryan" with Ryan Sheckler.

According to MTV: The first season of "Life of Ryan" skated to a strong finish as the most-watched program in its Monday, 10:30 p.m. ET/PT time period among F12-24 across all of television, including broadcast. During the course of the season (8/27-10/15/2007), more than 41 million total viewers (P2+) and 24 million viewers from the P12-34 core audience tuned in to watch Ryan with his family and friends.

Is this growing audience translating into new participants and sales on soft & hardgoods within skateboarding? Or is MTV just profiting (with advertisers, DVD's, books and merchandise) from these select personalities & the lifestyle, and giving nothing back to the sport?

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