Initially, MTV served all regions of Europe, being one of the few TV channels focused on the entire European market. At the moment, MTV serves a number of European countries along Asian, Oceanian, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean territories.
Over the years, MTV Global has been divided into several different channels for certain countries. Most countries in Europe, Asia, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean now have their own versions of the channel, and therefore MTV Global is now mostly available in those countries where there is no localised version of MTV.
In January 1987, MTV Networks Europe began recruiting VJs, and MTV Europe was planned to launch in the spring, but the launch was postponed to August.[5] The first auditions and filming took place in May.[6]
On 1 August 1987 at 00:01BST, MTV Europe started broadcasting, with British musicianElton John turning on the signal fromAmsterdam, NL. The first music video shown wasMoney for Nothing by Dire Straits. The beginning and end of the video were supplemented with the slogan "I want my MTV", voiced by Sting.[7] For the launch, the channel organized a party at the Roxy club in Amsterdam; many stars were invited, such as Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, Fish from Marillion, Terence Trent D'Arby, etc., the main guest and presenter was Elton John.[8][9] The initiators of the launch of MTV in Europe wereRobert Maxwell and two executives from MTV Networks USA;[8] as a result, Robert Maxwell Group,British Telecom and Viacom (the owner of the MTV brand), jointly created MTV Europe. The TV channel's office is still located in London.[10][11][12][7][13][14][15]
The channel was launched in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden; a year later MTV Europe expanded to West Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece and Norway.[7] At launch, the channel was available in 1.6 million households, increasing to 3.6 million subscribers by August 1988; by year's end, it had reached 6.7 million households.[7]
The original line-up of VJs included presenters from Belgium, Denmark and France, as well asRay Cokes andSteve Blame from the UK. MTV popularized the use of the termVJ to describe music TV presenters.[7]
Programs asMTV's Greatest Hits,Headbanger's Ball,MTV's Most Wanted,The Big Picture (a programme about cinema),The Pulse (about fashion and style),120 Minutes andMTV Coca-Cola Report (music news, interviews and toured dates of musicians) were produced.
In February 1988, MTV Europe moved to the Camden Town area at 20-23 Mandela St.[7][16]
In October of the same year, MTV Europe management visited theSoviet Union for preliminary negotiations on bringing the channel there.[17] At the same time, an application for registration of the TV channel was submitted.[18]
In 1989, MTV Europe covered the Moscow Music Festival live from the Lenin Stadium. At the same time, the TV channel started inEast Berlin,East Germany, the same day as the dissolution of the East German cabinet. 10 million subscribers across Europe were now picking the channel.[7] Soviet artists officially debuted on MTV in the summer of 1989. The Moscow group "Kruiz" released theHit for MTV manifesto song at the same time.
In February 1990, MTV Europe was launched inPoland andCzechoslovakia.[19] In the same year, Viacom bought 25% of MTV Europe's shares from British Telecom.[20] A British winner gotMadonna's gold stage costume designer for her Blonde Ambition tour in a competition held by the channel; other such cases included a 50-year old Yugoslavian winning aHarley-Davidson that was owned byBilly Idol and a winner receiving radio station.[7]
In early 1991, Metromedia International Group together with Lencentel signed a contract with MTV Europe for five years, the first contract for broadcasting a foreign channel signed in the USSR. On March 8, 1991, the channel began broadcasting in Leningrad, and later in other major cities, which made it possible to become the first Western 24-hour channel broadcast in the USSR.[21][22][23][24][25][26]
American rock band Nirvana led the rapid transition to the rise of alternative rock and grunge on MTV in 1991, releasing a music video for the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" byNirvana. In the early-mid-1990s, MTV added hip-hop rappers with a less pop sound to its rotation, such asTupac Shakur,The Notorious B.I.G.,Wu-Tang Clan, Ice Cube, Warren G, Ice-T, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg.
In August 1991, Viacom bought the remaining 50.1% of the shares from Robert Maxwell Group. The London-based company was short of cash, and sold its assets to reduce debts accumulated during aggressive acquisitions in the 1980s.[20] That same month, MTV Europe broadcast the MTV 10 special, for the tenth anniversary of its US parent.[7]
By 1992, MTV Networks Europe had become the largest pan-European broadcasting company.[7] MTV Europe was hosted by 38 million households in 28 countries.[27] In the same year, a teletext called MTV Text appeared on the TV channel, through which you can watch a TV programme, news, charts, participate in contests and communicate with the audience.[28][29][30]
From 1989 to 1997, MTV programmes were rebroadcast on Russia's main TV channels –ORTand itspredecessors,2x2,TV-6,Muz-TV and others; also from 1991 to 1996 on the Polish TV channelTVP1.
In 1994, the channel started holding theMTV Europe Music Awards (answer to VMAs) ceremony. Every year the ceremony takes place in a major European city. On 1 July 1995, MTV Europe switched to pay TV broadcasting, and was also one of the first channels in Europe to start digital broadcasting.[7]
In September, the channel was fined a total of £60,000 by the UK's Independent Television Commission for showing obscenities, scenes of sadomasochism and similar things at a time of day when youths could be watching.[31] In November of the same year, MTV Europe was hosted by 51.3 million households in 36 countries.[32] At the end of 1995, Chello Zone became the distributor of the channel in Russia[33][34]
In 1996–1997, two websites were registered – mtve.com and mtveurope.com.[35][36]
From the end of 1997, MTV gradually reduced the number of rock music videos all broadcast, which skeptics labelled: "Rock is dead." Among the reasons cited for the change are that rock music fans bought less of what they saw advertised on TV. Instead, MTV began to devote its musical airtime mainly to pop and urban music. All rock shows were eliminated, and the rock-related categories at the Video Music Awards were reduced to one.
At the rise of the new millennium, in the period from 1997 to 2001, MTV broadcast animated comedy dramaDaria.
MTV Networks Europe rapidly begun to open local divisions of the MTV channel. In March 1997, MTV Germany was launched. MTV UK & Ireland launched on 1 July, followed by MTV Italy in September. MTV Nordic for Scandinavia launched in June 1998, MTV Russia appeared on 25 September.[37] In 2000, other regional channels were launched – MTV France in June, followed by MTV Poland in July and MTV Spain and MTV Nederland in September.[38] MTV Networks Europe continued to launch local channels in other European countries. In the same year, another website appeared – mtv.tv[39]
On 1 April 2002,MTV Europe becameMTV European. At the same time, the channel began to abandon some of its programs in favour of American MTV shows. The channel significantly reduced the overall rotation of music videos during the 2000s. Similar trends were observed on other European MTV channels.
In 2007, MTV broadcast the reality showA Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, which told about the sensational journey of Tila Tequila in search of her sex partner. Her bisexuality played a role in the concept of the show: both men and women competed for love.
In 2006–07,MTV Turkey andMTV Ukraine were launched. In August 2007, the editorial department moved to Warsaw, but broadcasting continued from the London office. MTV European also expanded to South Africa and the Middle East.[40]
On 1 July 2009, during the unified standardization of the design of the global MTV network, a new corporate identity was introduced, as well as a new design.[41]
Since January 2010, MTV Networks Europe has started rebranding localized websites, creating standards for each country. In August, music programmes disappeared from the air, and reality shows from the American branch of MTV began to be shown instead.[42][43]
In 2010, the channel began broadcasting under a Czech license, since the Czech Republic has minimum broadcasting rules, it was chosen for licensing purposes in the EU. The broadcasting centre is still located in London[44][45] MTV European began to focus on viewers from 16 to 35 years old, the audience was more than 100 million people in 43 countries.
On 1 July 2011, the logo and design of the channel changed, the inscription "Music Television" disappeared from the logo.[46] The former name MTV Europe has also returned.
In 2012, all music charts discontinued from the channel.[47] At the beginning of 2013, three charts returned to the air of MTV Europe — Hitlist UK, Base Chart and Dance Floor Chart.[48] At the same time, the channel covered 101 countries.[49]
In the autumn of 2014, the channel's website was transferred to the organisers of the MTV Europe Music Awards, now when switching to the website mtv.tv, redirects to the site tv.mtvema.com.
In the summer of 2015, MTV Europe reissued the inter-programme screensavers of TV channels, focusing on the initiative MTVBump.com, and provided more social screensavers created by MTV viewers.[50][51][52][53][54][55]
In December 2017, MTV received a new design, similar to Latin American and Brazilian MTV. Other local MTV channels across Europe have also started using similar on-air branding.
Since June 2019, all music videos are broadcast only until 8:00 Central European time, with the exception of the Euro Top Chart on Friday from 9 to 11:00.
On 26 January 2021, MTV Europe has been renamed MTV Global, now the channel has the right to serve 111 countries of the world[60] the channel is only available in those countries where there is no localised version of MTV, and in some countries the channel cannot broadcast due to conflicting content with local laws. MTV Global retains the Czech license (RRTV) in order to ensure the continuation of legal broadcasting in the European Union in accordance with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the Single Market Law after the UK leaves the European Union. On September 14 of the same year, a rebranding was carried out, which included an updated version of the logo and a new design.[61]
On 8 and 19 September 2022, due to the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the TV channel removed all entertainment programmes from the air. Two music blocks were introduced: "Programming Pause" and "Nothing but Music", which broadcast relaxed and dim music videos.
At the beginning of 2023, a new programme "MTV Movies" was presented, it tells about the novelties of cinema.[62][user-generated source?]
MTV Germany was available FTA on Astra 19,2E, but it became encrypted on 1 January 2011. Until August 2015 the Italian MTV-station was free to air available on Eutelsat 12 West A. However, with the take-over of Sky Italia of this channel, it has been rebranded TV8. MTV Italia has become an exclusive Sky-channel only for subscribers. On 23 December 2017, MTV Germany turned itself into a free-to-air channel.
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