No central stud for TV mount - add exterior horizontal "stud"?

I have a wall where I'd like to add a TV mount. However, the center area that the TV should be mounted doesn't have a stud.

But, there are two studs, one each to the left and right sides of the center. Would it be "ok" to drill and attach a horizontal exterior "stud" or hard wood to each of the two side studs? I know that there are different types of wall mounts that are wide enough to be placed on the studs the way they are now. If I wanted to though, could I use one tall or two exterior beams to mount the TV to?

Here's a crude drawing of what I mean (the red indicates the exterior visible horizontal beam located outside of the drywall which I'll probably paint to match the wall - there can be two of these for the top and bottom of the mount; the brown indicates the wood studs to the two sides behind the drywall; the two red dots indicate where I plan on adding wood anchors on the studs and long screws; the wall is about 3-3.5 feet wide):




Should I not bother with it and get the right TV mount (I really like the quality of the one I'm looking at, as I have that installed for a different TV)? Does this setup make it inherently weaker than to connect the wall mount directly to the wall?


Thanks in advance!

 

Use ¾" plywood for your panel.

I tend to over engineer so I would probably bolt the mount to the plywood using T-nuts then screw the plywood to the studs using 3" #10 wood screws. Drill clearance holes about 1/16" larger than the screw shank for the screws in the plywood and pilot holes 1/8"-9/64" in the studs.

 

I'm all for over-engineering - better safe than sorry!

Plywood sounds like a great idea - I'll look into your specs, thanks ray2047!