MTV Австралия: История музыкального канала

Entertainment television channel

MTV was a 24 hour general entertainment channel specialising in music and youth culture programming which serves Australia and New Zealand. Paramount Networks UK & Australia headquartered in London with a local office at Network 10's headquarters in Sydney is responsible for marketing and advertising in Australia and New Zealand. The channel was replaced by MTV Global in August 2023.

The "MTV" brand was launched in Australia during April 1987 as a music program that aired late on Friday and Saturday nights for its full six year run on the free to air Nine Network. The program was hosted by Richard Wilkins and Joy Smithers with music news from Alison Drower. Its competitors at the time were ABC TV's Rage (which also started in April 1987) and Network Ten's Video Hits (which started in February 1987). MTV Australia's focus was predominantly on Australian, British, Canadian and American artists and the program rarely played other forms of rock and pop music. The program presented a mixture of music videos, interviews and segments, and depended heavily on imported US content. In its early years it also showed the MTV USA game show Remote Control. The program was discontinued in 1993 when Nine chose not to renew the licence with Viacom. Nine said the axing was due to high production and licensing costs. Saul Shtein brought MTV to Australia with Richard Wilkins.

"ARC Music Television", owned by Austereo, was launched three years after MTV ended on the Nine Network on 14 June 1996 in a joint venture with, then, music giant Austereo and Village Roadshow through Optus Television to become a twenty four hour music channel playing pop music and airing original programming. After a year on the air the network was approached by MTV Networks in the US and through a deal once again with Austereo, Village Roadshow Entertainment and Optus vision ARC was re branded as MTV Australia.

Five months after the initial announcement of ARC's re branding, MTV Australia was officially re launched on Optus Television on 20 March 1997. The channel originally produced local programmes but due to cost cutting the channel aired mostly American content. In the same year the channel set up MTV Networks Australia, which began work on launching its own original programming with the launch of the Australian version of the hit American show TRL on 10 September 2004 with host Kyle Sandilands from 2day fm. MTV Networks Australia launched sister channel Vh1 on 14 March 2004 when cable company Foxtel launched its digital network. In 2005 MTV premiered more original programming with MTV Full Tank and on 3 March MTV launched the first inaugural MTV Australia Video Music Awards at Luna Park's Big Top with hosts The Osbournes. In April 2006 SelecTV began carrying the channel. At the end of 2006 it was announced that MTV would premiere its latest original show, MTV's The Lair which premiered on 26 January 2007 and is aired live every Thursday at The Metro Theatre. In the mid to late 2000s MTV Network took ownership of the channel from Optus. At the beginning of 2007 MTV re located its head office from Ryde to Yurong St in East Sydney. In April MTV Networks Australia launched TMF Australia on the Optus Cable Service. In February 2010 it was announced that MTV would replace sister channel VH1 with MTV Classic which launched on 1 May 2010. On the eve of the launch for MTV Classic a spokesperson for MTV Australia announced that a third channel would be launched later in 2010. It was later revealed on 20 September 2010 that MTV would launch three new channels in Australia; MTV Hits, MTVN Live and MTVN Live HD. MTV Hits will play music 24 hours a day and MTVN Live will have concerts and festivals from around the world as well as documentaries. The channel's are set to launch on 1 November 2010. As part of expanding its local programming, MTV Australia announced its first reality series Freshwater Blue which follows the lives of twelve Australian teenagers in the Northern Beaches suburb of Freshwater.

In June 2010 the channel became available on the new FetchTV service. In 2010 the MTV Australia and MTV New Zealand feeds were merged and the combined MTV Australia and New Zealand began broadcasting out of the network's Sydney offices. As of Autumn 2013, Viacom International Media Networks in Sydney has relocated its MTV (for Australia and New Zealand) and Comedy Central (New Zealand) channels to VIMN in London. The channels advertising department will remain in Sydney for the time being. In February 2018, MTV Australia was made available in HD (720p) on Fetch TV, becoming the first and only provider in Australia to do so. Sky (New Zealand) also broadcasts the channel in HD. On 17 September 2019, it was reported that sister channel Network 10 would launch a free to air MTV Australia in the coming months. A further announcement was made in May 2020 regarding a fourth multichannel from Network 10, which is expected to feature content from the back catalogue of ViacomCBS properties such as MTV and Nickelodeon. This was confirmed by the network on 13 July 2020, with the new channel launching as 10 Shake in September 2020. It will air kids content, primarily from Nickelodeon, from 6am to 6pm, with MTV, Comedy Central and CBS programming targeting young adults and adolescents airing from 6pm onwards. On 1 August 2023, MTV was removed from Foxtel (alongside Nick and Nick Jr.), coinciding with the relaunch of 10 Shake as a free to air version of Nickelodeon. At the same time, a suite of MTV branded Pluto TV FAST channels were made available on Paramount owned BVOD service 10Play. MTV Australia and New Zealand was replaced by MTV International in August 2023. MTV will continue to operate country specific content through its Australian themed social media.

In 2005 MTV Australia launched the first ever MTV Australia Video Music Awards (Now known as the MTV Australia Awards), based on the VMA awards format used in Europe and the US. It was held at Luna Park in Sydney. Following suit with the location, the AVMAs had a circus theme and was hosted by various members of the Osbourne family. The awards ceremony included many international and local guests. In 2010 it was announced that MTV Networks Australia will launch MTV Classic. As part of the launch MTV will have a music event that will replace the annual awards ceremony for 2010. In 2007 the competition ran again with the winners announced on 28 January 2008 at the ONE80PROJECT festival screening at Harmony Park in Surry Hills. The Viewers Choice Award went to Kade Robinson for Generation When and the Judges Choice went to Sarah Daggar Nickson and Scott Otto Anderson for their co production Dream Life. The 2008 competition is currently underway with winners to be announced early 2009.

In 2007 rapper Snoop Dogg was to attend the MTV Australia Video Music Awards 2007 as a co host on 29 April but a few days prior to the event it was announced that Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews would not grant him a Visa into the country because of past criminal convictions overseas. In response MTV Australia organised the "Vote for Snoop" campaign through MySpace which contained videos talking about how much he wants to become an Australian citizen in different situations.

Occasionally Australian free to air television stations look at the success of shows on MTV before purchasing them for broadcast. In particular, Network Ten who purchased broadcast rights to The Osbournes from MTV Networks. Ten was required to wait until the show had aired on MTV Australia before broadcasting on their own channel. Later Ten purchased rights to Jackass, Pimp My Ride (but as of 2012, is being shown on 7mate) and Laguna Beach. Public broadcaster ABC also purchased the rights to animation Daria, which formerly aired during its children's programming slot, edited for content. As of September 2016, Daria is airing on SBS Viceland. As of 2009 programmes from MTV Networks are being screened on the Nine Network Channel GO!. The Hills is currently being broadcast on the channel. In 2009 the website was re designed and now mimics mtv. com