MTV on the Nine Network 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 "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.
Re-launch and expansion 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.
2010–2025 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 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 Global in August 2023. MTV will continue to operate country specific content through its Australian themed social media. As of June 2025, Foxtel dropped all MTV branded channels in Australia, therefore viewers can only access MTV content via Paramount Plus. ==Presenters and VJs==