History
On 1 August 1987 at 00:01 BST, MTV Europe officially launched with an Elton John concert in Amsterdam at the Roxy Club marked in conjunction with MTV, as a commemoration of its sixth anniversary.[3] The first video clip shown on the air was "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits. Moreover, the beginning and end of the clip were supplemented with the slogan "I want my MTV", voiced by Sting.[4] The initiator of the launch of MTV in Europe was Robert Maxwell.[3] Then his company Robert Maxwell Group with British Telecom and Viacom (the copyright holder of the "MTV" brand) in joint cooperation, created the MTV Europe TV channel.[5] The office was located in London at 40 Conduit St.[6][7]
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.[4] The channel was immediately accepted into 1.6 million households.[4]
The original line-up of VJs included presenters from Belgium, Denmark and France, as well as Ray Cokes and Steve Blame from the UK. Since that time, MTV has popularized the use of the term VJ to describe their profession.[4]
At that time, such programs as MTV's Greatest Hits, Headbanger's Ball, MTV's Most Wanted, The Big Picture (a program about cinema), The Pulse (about fashion and style), 120 Minutes and MTV Coca-Cola Report (music news, interviews and tour dates of musicians) were produced.
In February 1988, MTV Europe moved to the Camden Town area at 20-23 Mandela St.[4][8]
In October of the same year, the management of MTV Europe visited the Soviet Union for preliminary negotiations on the start of work.[9] At the same time, an application for registration of the TV channel was submitted.[10]
In 1989, MTV Europe covered the Moscow Music Festival live from the Lenin Stadium. At the same time, the TV channel started in East Berlin, East Germany.[4]
Soviet artists officially debuted on MTV in the summer of 1989. The Moscow group "Cruise" released the Hit for MTV manifesto song at the same time.
In February 1990, MTV Europe was launched in Poland and Czechoslovakia.[11] In the same year, Viacom bought 25% of MTV Europe's shares from British Telecom.[5]
In early 1991, Metromedia International Group together with Lencentel signed a contract with MTV Europe for 5 years, this is 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 that could be received in the USSR.[12][13][14][15][16][17]
Nirvana led the rapid transition to the rise of alternative rock and grunge on MTV in 1991, releasing a video clip for the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana.
In the early-mid-1990s, MTV added gangsta rappers with a less pop sound to its rotation, such as Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, Ice Cube, Warren G, Ice-T, Dr. Dre, Us and Snoop Dogg.
In August 1991, Viacom bought the remaining 50.1% of the shares from Robert Maxwell Group, because the London-based company was short of cash, and sold its assets as part of efforts to reduce debts accumulated during aggressive acquisitions in the 1980s.[5]
By 1992, MTV Networks Europe had become the largest pan-European broadcasting company.[4] MTV Europe was hosted by 38 million households in 28 countries.[18]
In 1993, MTV Europe moved to a new office at 180 Oxford Street, however programmes were filmed at the former TV-am Breakfast Television Centre on 17-29 Hawley Crescent, which was bought by MTV Networks Europe after station ceased broadcasting.[19][20]
From 1990 to 1996, MTV programs were rebroadcast on the central TV channels of Russia – "VID", "ORT", "2x2", "TV-6", "Muz-TV" and others. Also from 1992 to 1994 on the Polish TV channel TVP1.
The channel launched the premieres of the following programs: Beavis and Butthead, Æon Flux, The Brothers Grunt, etc.
In 1994, the channel began holding the MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony. Every year the ceremony takes place in one of the major European cities.
On July 1, 1995, MTV Europe switched to pay TV broadcasting, and was also one of the first channels in Europe to start digital broadcasting.[4]
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 children could still be at the TV.[21] In November of the same year, MTV Europe was hosted by 51.3 million households in 36 countries.[22] At the end of 1995, Chello Zone became the distributor of the channel in Russia[23][24]
In 1996–1997, two websites were launched – mtve.com and mtveurope.com.[25][26]
Starting from the end of 1997, MTV gradually reduced the screening of video clips of rock music representatives, which led to the slogan among skeptics: "Rock is dead." The fact that at that time rock music fans were less materialistic and bought less music based on TV offers were cited as the reasons that the channel was breaking away from its once mainstream music. Instead, MTV began to devote its musical airtime mainly to pop and hip-hop/R&B music. All rock shows were eliminated, and the rock-related categories at the Video Music Awards were reduced to one.
At the dawn of the new millennium, in the period from 1997 to 2001, the animated series Daria in the genre of comedy drama, everyday life was released on the MTV channel.
MTV Networks Europe has rapidly begun to open local divisions of the MTV channel in some countries. So in March 1997, MTV Germany was launched. MTV UK & Ireland opened on July 1, then MTV Italy was launched in September.
MTV Nordic for Scandinavia was launched in June 1998, MTV Russia appeared on September 25.[27] 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.[28] MTV Networks Europe continued to open local branches in other European countries. In the same year, another website appeared – mtv.tv[29]
On April 1, 2002, MTV Europe was renamed to MTV European. At the same time, the channel began to abandon some of its programs in favor 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 2004 and 2008, MTV continued to focus on reality shows, releasing projects 8th & Ocean, Laguna Beach, Next, The Hills, Two-A-Days, My Super Sweet 16, Parental Control and Viva la Bam featuring Bam Margera.
In 2007, MTV broadcast the reality show A 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 2006–2007, MTV Turkey and MTV 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.[30]
On July 1, 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.[31]
Since January 2010, MTV Networks Europe has started rebranding localized websites, creating standards for each country. In August, music programs disappeared from the air, and reality shows from the American branch of MTV began to be shown instead.[32][33]
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 center is still located in London[34][35] 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 July 1, 2011, the logo and design of the channel changed, the inscription "Music Television" disappeared from the logo.[36] The former name MTV Europe has also returned.
In 2012, the channel moved to the Breakfast television center at 17-29 Hawley Crescent, from there all foreign TV channels of Paramount Networks are operated.[34] At the same time, all music charts disappeared from the channel.[37] At the beginning of 2013, three charts returned to the air of MTV Europe — Hitlist UK, Base Chart and Dance Floor Chart.[38] At the same time, the channel covered 101 countries.[39]
In the fall of 2014, the channel's website was transferred to the organizers 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-program screensavers of TV channels, focusing on the initiative MTVBump.com, and provided more social screensavers created by MTV viewers.[40][41][42][43][44][45]
On March 1, 2016, MTV Europe switched to widescreen broadcasting (16:9).[46][47]
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.
In 2020 the editorial department moved to Amsterdam from Warsaw.[48][49]
On January 26, 2021, MTV Europe has been renamed MTV Global, now the channel has the right to serve 111 countries of the world[50] the channel is only available in those countries where there is no localized 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.[51]
On August 1, 2022, in honor of the 35th anniversary of MTV Global, the first Bumper was shown.[52]
On September 8 and 19, 2022, due to the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the TV channel removed all entertainment programs from the air. Two music blocks were introduced: "Programming Pause" and "Nothing but Music", which broadcast relaxed and gloomy music videos.
At the beginning of 2023, a new program "MTV Movies" was presented, it tells about the novelties of cinema.[53]
In August 2023, MTV Global replaced the local MTV channel in Australia and New Zealand.[54]
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