MTV Italy

MTV Italy is the Italian speaking version of the popular 24 hour music and youth entertainment channel. Unlike its counterparts elsewhere in Europe, MTV Italia is a national channel available free-to-air on terrestrial television since September 1, 1997 and available on digital terrestrial television since September 14, 2009^[1], making it one of three versions of MTV available in free-to-air terrestrial television. (The other being MTV Brasil and from September 2010 MTV Spain)

History

• Prior to the launch of a 24 hour Italian speaking MTV, MTV viewers in Italy received the pan-European version of MTV.

• Regionalization of MTV in Europe began in March 1997 with the launch a German speaking MTV, followed by a UK branded channel in July of the same year. Following on from the Italian channel which officially launched in London on September 1, 1997, the day when its transmissions entered into the TV programmings of Rete A.

• On May 1, 2001, after having been acquired by Telecom Italia Media, MTV Italia moved to the frequencies of the late TMC2 (formerly known as Videomusic) thus becoming a standalone channel and getting more and more like every other "big" network in Italy, showing news, movie trailers and other things which would never have fit into the former schedules of the channel. The handover and the whole changing process was advertised with the name of "MTV Regeneration".

• In early 2002 the channel moved from London to Milan.

• MTV Italia is currently controlled by Telecom Italia Media (51%) and Viacom (49%), and its main offices are located in Milan. Several shows are made up locally, featuring Italian music and artists. Some of the most popular shows on the channel are the Italian version of Total Request Live, LoveLine, Brand New, other are ariginals like Very Victoria, Italo-Francese, Avere Ventanni and Hitlist Italia.

• MTV Italia also shows a variety of reality shows (mainly imported from MTV US) and TV series such as Scrubs, Less Than Perfect and The Office. Since 1999, the channel has shown several Japanese anime on a regular basis.

• However, the best music videos and programs are mainly shown through the night, as in the old MTV Europe days. Several classic shows are still on after many years: Chill Out Zone, Party Zone, Superock, Yo! among others.

• Main Italian hosts for MTV Italia are Victoria Cabello, Alessandro Cattelan, Carlo Pastore, and Elena Santarelli. Some of the former hosts of the channel are Andrea Pezzi, Camila Raznovich and Enrico Silvestrin (who are both also former MTV Europe vjs), Kris Grove, Kris Reichert, Giorgia Surina, Marco Maccarini, Paola Maugeri, and Daniele Bossari.

Digital Channels

• In the Summer of 2003 MTV Italia launched two satellite channels: MTV Hits Italia, mainly dedicated to showing chart hits and classic clips from the MTV archives and MTV Brand New, devoted to showing all the best cutting-edge, indie, electronic, metal, experimental music out there. In 2006, a fourth channel was launched: Flux, now known as QOOB, creating a whole new concept of television consisting of showing eclectic / alternative music videos 24/7 along with some artistic footages sent in by the viewers through the channel's website and other bits taken from the MTV2 US programming.

• On November 30 the Italian version of Flux, was rebranded into QOOB and on April an international website was launched. QOOB shows no commercials at all and is distributed through DVB-T in Italy. On the 1st of October 2007, two new satellite channels were born:
• MTV Gold (hosting music from the 70s 80s and 90s)
• MTV Pulse (for commercial music)
• VH1 (a local version broadcast from London)

• On January 10, 2011 MTV Networks Italia rebranded its channels. MTV Italia continued to air a mix of music and reality tv based content. MTV Pulse and MTV Brand New were closed down and replaced by the pan-European versions of MTV Dance and MTV Rocks. MTV Networks Italia rebranded MTV Gold as MTV Classic and MTV Hits was rebranded on air and went live at a 16:9 perspective.

• MTV Music was launched in Italy in May 2010 as MTV+ and was so rebranded under a new branding strategy by MTV Networks International MTV+ on March 1, 2011. This channel is exclusive to the digital terrestrial television network available in the majority of Italian homes. Unlike its former channel MTV Music will only play music content unlike MTV+ which had a selection of music and content largely from MTV US.

References

External links

• MTV Italy official website
• MTV Italy on Telecom Italia Media corporate page