MTV

MTV, originally short for Music Television, is an American cable television channel that began broadcasting at one minute past midnight on 1 August 1981 under the ownership of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. It first aired music videos presented by on-air hosts known as video jockeys, and its first video was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. The channel spread overseas, built a large following and became a major force in the growth of cable programming in the 1990s. In 1985 Viacom bought control of its parent MTV Networks, and in later decades the channel moved away from music toward original reality programming for teenagers and young adults. It reached about 99 million American pay-television households at its 2011 peak and about 67 million by November 2023, and it also runs the annual Video Music Awards.