Music channels focus on playing music videos from bands. MTV was originally launched in 1981 to play music videos but now airs reality and scripted TV shows. 4Music is a UK channel that replaced The Hits and airs music videos and entertainment. The Box is a UK channel that airs music videos and music-related programming from 4Music. VIVA was a German music channel launched in 1993 that provided exposure for German artists and was later acquired by MTV Networks Europe.

1. Music Channels
By Tara Caple

2. What are music channels?
Music television is a type of television
programming which focuses
predominantly on playing music videos
from bands, usually on dedicated
television channels broadcasting on
satellite or cable.

3. MTV
• MTV, originally an initialism of Music Television, is
an American cable television channel based in New
York City that launched on August 1, 1981.
• The original purpose of the channel was to play music
videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs.
• Today, MTV primarily broadcasts a variety
of reality and scripted television programs targeted
at adolescents and young adults.

4. 4 Music
• 4Music is a music and entertainment channel in
the United Kingdom and available on some digital
television providers in the Republic of Ireland.
• It is the only channel within the Box
Television Network to be branded under Channel
4 and is one of the only channels in the network to
be broadcast in widescreen.
• The channel replaced The Hits. It is available
on Freeview, Virgin Media, Sky and Smallworld
Cable.

5. The Box
• The Box is a television channel in the United
Kingdom and Ireland.
• The channel is one of many within the Box
Television network, a joint venture
between Channel Four Television
Corporation and Bauer Group.
• The channel mainly broadcasts music videos,
although it also features other music-related
programming from 4Music.

6. VIVA
• VIVA a free-to-air German language based music television channel
went first on the air on 1. December 1993.
• A consortium of broadcasters and record companies led by Time
Warner, Sony Television, Polygram Records and EMI Music, saw
their investment in VIVA as an antidote to the "vain posturing power
of MTV Networks executives" according to Germany's Süddeutsche
Zeitung.
• VIVA became an immediate success with the audience, while
ultimately providing German artists with a music channel that could
help expose their music to the German audience.
• After many years of fierce competition for audience share, MTV
Networks Europe eventually acquired VIVA on 14. January 2005
after it had outran its own efforts for better ratings. MTV today
operates VIVA channels across Europe, in Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, the United Kingdom and Republic of
Ireland.