1986–1987: Preparation for the launch In January 1986, MTV Networks Europe was established. The company included: owner of the MTV brand - Viacom (now
Paramount Skydance), Mirror Group Newspapers (Maxwell), and British Telecom. Initially, the launch of the television channel was planned for April 1987. Later, the date was postponed to August 15; however, the launch was then moved forward to August 1. In January 1987, MTV Networks Europe began recruiting VJs The first auditions and filming took place in May. In June 1987, AIR TV, a company within the Chrysalis Group, provided the channel with technical broadcasting equipment (control room).
1987–1996: Launch of the channel and expansion across countries On 1 August 1987 at 00:01
BST, MTV Europe started broadcasting, with British musician
Elton John turning on the signal from
Amsterdam, NL. The first music video shown was
Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. The beginning and end of the video were supplemented with the slogan "I want my MTV", voiced by Sting. 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. The TV channel's office is still located in London. 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. In October of the same year, MTV Europe management visited the
Soviet Union for preliminary negotiations on bringing the channel there. At the same time, an application for registration of the TV channel was submitted. 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, the same day as the dissolution of the East German cabinet. 10 million subscribers across Europe were now picking the channel. In the same year, the channel expanded beyond Europe, launching in Israel. A British winner got
Madonna'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 a
Harley-Davidson that was owned by
Billy Idol and a winner receiving radio station. 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" by
Nirvana. In the early-mid-1990s, MTV added hip-hop 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, and Snoop Dogg. In August 1991, MTV Europe broadcast the MTV 10 special, for the tenth anniversary of its US parent. 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. From 1989 to 1997, MTV programmes were rebroadcast on Russia's main TV channels –
ORT and its predecessors,
2x2,
TV-6,
Muz-TV and others; also from 1991 to 1996 on the Polish TV channel
TVP1. The channel premiered the following animated programmes:
Beavis and Butt-Head,
Æon Flux,
The Brothers Grunt, etc. In 1994, the channel started holding the
MTV 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. In November of the same year, MTV Europe was hosted by 51.3 million households in 36 countries. At the end of 1995, Chello Zone became the distributor of the channel in Russia In 1996–1997, two websites were registered – mtve.com and mtveurope.com.
1996–2025: Regionalization and a gradual shift away from music In September 1996, MTV Europe was split into three broadcast zones: •
MTV Northern (UK, France, Scandinavia, etc.) •
MTV Southern (Italy) •
MTV Central (Germany, Eastern Europe, the post-Soviet region, Greece, etc.) All three channels followed the same broadcast schedule with minimal differences. Despite the changes, it was still MTV Europe. MTV Networks Europe rapidly begun to open local divisions of the MTV channel. In March 1997, MTV Germany was launched: the German channel inherited the name MTV Central and kept it for several years. MTV UK & Ireland launched on 1 July, followed by MTV Italy in September. All three MTV Europe zones were closed, and broadcasting once again became unified 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 drama
Daria. MTV Nordic for Scandinavia launched in June 1998, MTV Russia appeared on 25 September. 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. MTV Networks Europe continued to launch local channels in other European countries. In the same year, another website appeared – mtv.tv On April 15, 1999, a fire broke out at the Breakfast complex. Engineers and studio staff aired emergency recordings, after which broadcasting was suspended for several hours. At that time, the complex housed the British and European operations of MTV and VH1. On 1 April 2002,
MTV Europe became
MTV 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 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 2006–07,
MTV Turkey and
MTV Ukraine were launched. In August 2007, a second office opened in Warsaw, responsible for online operations (the website, social media, support, etc.). The main office remained in London. 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. 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.. Throughout the 2010s, the channel completely phased out advertising. 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 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. The former name MTV Europe has also returned. In 2012, all music charts discontinued from the channel. At the beginning of 2013, three charts returned to the air of MTV Europe — Hitlist UK, Base Chart and Dance Floor Chart. 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. On 1 March 2016, MTV Europe switched to widescreen broadcasting (16:9). 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 The channel retains its 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. 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. In 2024; all international MTV websites were merged into a global website, and later into a local MTV social media redirection.
2025–present: MTV without music On December 31, 2025, MTV Global completely abandoned music. The schedule now consists only of reality shows and other entertainment programs. All thematic sister channels were also shut down — MTV 80s, MTV 90s, MTV 00s, MTV Live, MTV Hits, and Club MTV. These channels aired music without commercial breaks. At the same time, most of the international MTV channels (French, Dutch, Spanish/Portuguese, Italian and African) were merged into MTV Global schedule, except the German, British and Latin American versions remaining a bit or less independent. At the beginning of 2026, Paramount Skydance announced plans to “relaunch” MTV and restore the brand’s musical focus. The company is already in talks with major players in the music industry about selling a certain stake in MTV, in return expecting the partner to provide not only funding but also music assets. If everything goes according to plan, the transition period will begin before the next round of negotiations with major TV operators in 2027. == Logo ==