MTV (originally an acronym for Music Television) is a U.S. television cable channel, originally established in 1981 by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. Since 1985, MTV is part of Viacom.
MTV began broadcasting on August 1, 1981 with a video of the British group The Buggles, "Video Killed the Radio Star", the second video shown was Pat Benatar, "You Better Run". Today, MTV is a media conglomerate which operates Nickelodeon, VH1 and a package of five digital services: MTV Jams, MTV Hits, VH1 Soul and VH1 Classic. MTV also has its own broadcast in Spanish. In June 2004, MTV began to publish a magazine in Spain.
It has also boosted the careers of many global artists, meaning that today are recognized worldwide, such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Simpson, Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Ashlee Simpson, Kylie Minogue, Pink among others, because MTV promotes and spends its music videos which are seen throughout the world according to the level of the artist (if it's a global artist or just a section of the world).
MTV has changed much since the early days of programming, became MTV Networks and has grown tremendously. It has more than 71.6 million subscribers in the U.S. and reach 301.2 million subscribers in 82 countries, has 9,105 affiliates and broadcasts 24 hours per day.
MTV has expanded internationally: UK and USA including MTV, MTV Europe (1987), MTV Brazil (1990), MTV Japan (1992), MTV China (1995), MTV Asia (1995), MTV Spain (2000) and MTV Latin America (1993).
MTV's target market are young people 11-34 years, which covers a very diverse group. With the popularity of MTV came the popularity of people coming out in the channel, better known as VJ or "video jockeys", who have come to possess a very powerful position.
It's a music company, which has provided great success for the fame of the artists to promote their songs, also awards MTV Video Music Awards, its counterpart MTV Movie Awards, the MTV Europe Music Awards and the MTV recurring special event Live. It offers a condensed version of the concerts of famous artists performed for the MTV television.
Currently, MTV has turned all its programming live action and reality TV series, so much so that in 2011, the channel decided to remove the legend Music Television from its logo, formalizing well, which is not just a music channel.
MTV was also a team sponsor for Formula One in the 1990's, the Simtek team.