MTV (Russia)
MTV Russia or MTV Россия was a Russian music and entertainment TV channel, which carried out its broadcasting from 25 September 1998 to 31 May 2013. On 1 October 2013, MTV Russia was relaunched as a satellite pay TV channel.
In March 2022, Paramount Global announced that it intends to pause operations in Russia. The company did not comment on their plans of returning in the future.
History
Pre-launch (1988–1998)
In October 1988, the management of MTV Networks Europe visited the USSR for preliminary negotiations on the launch of MTV Europe, 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 Lenin Stadium. Soviet artists officially debuted on MTV in the summer of 1989. The Moscow group "Cruise" released the "Hit for MTV" manifesto song at the same time.
On 8 March 1991, MTV Europe began broadcasting in the USSR, and thus became the first Western 24/7 TV channel that could be received in the country. Also, in 1993–1998, music videos with the MTV logo were consistently aired on some Russian channels, including 2x2, TV-6, Muz-TV.
The appearance of the Russian version of MTV became known on 6 April 1998, when the CEO of MTV Networks Tom Freston and the president of Biz Enterprises Boris Zosimov signed a five-year license agreement for broadcasting.
Launch and first years (1998–2002)
On the night of 25–26 September 1998, MTV Russia began broadcasting in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The broadcast had been opened with the concert of The Prodigy in Moscow. The first Russian music video was Vladivostok 2000 by Mumiy Troll, the first foreign music video was Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page's Come With Me. In the initial period of the channel's operation, 35% of broadcast music videos were Russian, the remaining 65% were foreign, unlike its competitor in the face of the Muz-TV channel, whose broadcast was dominated by songs by Russian artists. In comparison with its competitor, MTV also attracted the attention of viewers by showing music videos of Russian and foreign bands and performers that are quite radical by the standards of domestic television, high-quality clips of foreign music stars, charts from around the world, programs about extreme sports, style and fashion, as well as documentaries about the lives of idols from the world of popular and rock music. Part of the first programs of MTV Russia originally appeared on Zosimov's BIZ-TV channel, almost the entire original cast of VJ's also moved from there.Almost all Russian pop-music artists were blacklisted on MTV Russia back then, meaning their music videos weren't neither watched nor selected at channel's artistic councils. Non-musical programs of foreign versions of MTV in the first 3–4 years of broadcasting of the Russian channel almost did not get on the air. As the target audience of his channel, Zosimov considered viewers aged 12 to 25–30 years, among whom in those years channel was in the greatest demand.
Unlike Western countries, where MTV was primarily a cable or satellite TV channel, MTV Russia's broadcast in the period from 1998 to 2013 was carried out in the broadcast range on the principle of a network TV channel with a mixed signal distribution scheme: through its own frequencies or by retransmitting the air through network partners. In particular, from 26 September 1998, to 2 October 2001, MTV could be seen in the morning and at night in Moscow on Channel 33 Teleexpo, daytime and evening broadcasts been taking place only on Channel 38. In other regions of the country, the channel began broadcasting at 7:00 AM. From 2 October 2001, Euronews channel began to air on Channel 33 in the morning and at night, and MTV Russia completely switched to the UHF.
During 1998–2001, the broadcasting of MTV was expanded to most of the regions of Russia, as well as to some cities in Kazakhstan. Initially, the channel's broadcasting was end-to-end for all time zones of broadcasting. In 2002, MTV Russia began broadcasting in the new time zone MSK+4, which allowed viewers from these regions to watch programs at a convenient time, and not with a time shift, as it was before. In 2010, versions of MSK+2 and MSK+7 were added. The coast-to-coast broadcasting stopped simultaneously with the departure of the TV channel from broadcasting.
From 5 to 24 September 2000, in connection with the fire at the Ostankino TV Tower, MTV Russia was broadcast on Teleexpo around the clock from 0:30 to 12:30 on weekdays and from 0:30 to 10:00 on weekends, without a four- and five-hour break from 2:00 to 7:00 and from 3:00 to 7:00, which was practiced earlier. This was done due to the fact that the broadcast of "MTV Russia" on its frequency was restored somewhat later, and at the time of the resumption of broadcasting of "Teleexpo" it was completely absent. Since 25 September 2000, the round-the-clock broadcasting was canceled, and it began broadcasting according to the same schedule. Since 16 April 2002, MTV Russia has switched to 24-hour broadcasting on a permanent basis. Despite this, until the end of the 2000s, on the night from Monday to Tuesday, there was a weekly technical break from 1:45 to 6:00 in the round-the-clock operation of the TV channel.
Sale to Viacom (2002–2008)
In 2002, Boris Zosimov sold his stake to the owner of the MTV brand to Viacom, after which he left the channel. At the same time, Viacom began to change the channel format on the model of the original MTV channel. Due to the upcoming changes and the need to free up human and material resources for the implementation of new projects, the channel's management decided to remove a number of rating programs from the air, such as "12 angry viewers", "Good Morning", "Quiet Hour", "Gimlet Rule", "PaparazZi", "Shit Parade" and "Caprice". After the channel left: Asya Kalyasina, Vasily Strelnikov, Elena Zosimova, Lika Dlugach, Irma Ignatova, Mikhail Rolnik, Anton Komolov, Olga Shelest, Yana Churikova, Andrey Grigoriev-Apollonov — the hosts of these programs.The editorial policy began to change gradually. In accordance with the views on the development of MTV Russia by its new president Linda Jensen, since 2002, the channel has expanded the time for foreign-produced programs with translation into Russian, as well as for animated series. Among the similar non—musical programs and series that appeared in those years were "Boiling Point", "In flight", "True Life", "Transformation", "Cribs", "I Bet You Will", "Pimp My Ride", "Viva la Bam", "South Park", "Stripperella". Instead of closed rating music programs, the daytime program "Total Show" was created. The channel's music broadcasts gradually increased the number of clips of Russian pop artists, including those who, for their part, lobbied major record labels or advertisers.
After Ilya Bachurin came to MTV Russia, the music blocks also often began to rotate and video clips of graduates of the "Factory of Stars" project created under his supervision, over time, the reality show itself began to air. Against the background of the departure of the original VJ's, the quality of programs and the popularity of the channel began to gradually decline. In addition, the free airtime was gradually given to interactive programs that were based on voting conducted by sending SMS messages to a four-digit phone number. At various times, "SMS-chart", "Kinochart", "Mobile Robots", etc. were broadcast on MTV Russia. From 2004 to 2009, SMS services for ordering songs to mobile phones or performing various entertainment services, as well as chats that were displayed at the bottom of the screen during the clips and broadcasts, were constantly working on the channel. Similar services in those years during the broadcast worked on other specialized decimeter channels.
Since 9 January 2004, the broadcasting of "MTV Russia" began to go with stereo sound. This was evidenced by a gray rectangular bar with the text "Stereo" under the logo, which was displayed on the Moscow broadcast of the TV channel from January 2004 to December 2005. At the same time, the TV channel carried out technical re-equipment of all TV studios involved in filming their own projects.
In the mid-2000s, the strengthening of the positions of such entertainment TV channels as STS and TNT forced MTV Russia to change the broadcasting schedule of the channel since 2005 in the direction of reducing the number of music videos and programs related to music being shown and increasing the number of entertainment programs — both of its own production and programs with voiceover translation into Russian, borrowed from MTV. Due to the difficult relationship with the new management, and due to the unfavorable environment for creative activity on the channel, the few remaining VJ's and voice-over workers from the old composition of MTV Russia continued to leave their places, In particular, in 2003–2006, general producer Dmitry Velikanov and VJ Tatiana Gevorkyan, Ivan Urgant, Grigory Kulagin left the channel.
Despite the outflow of personnel, around the same time, the TV channel began to master other, new for itself television genres. From autumn 2004 to autumn 2008, MTV Russia held its own music awards ceremony — the MTV Russia Music Awards. And from 2006 to 2009, the MTV Russia Film Awards ceremony was held. In 2006, the channel launched a high-budget television series of its own production "Club". The success of the series among viewers allowed the TV channel to shoot the second series — "Hello, I'm your dad".
From 2005 to 2006, the channel began showing more active foreign youth television series: "Less than Perfect", "Scrubs", "Californication", "Skins", "Turkish for Beginners" and others. At one time in the mid-2000s, anime was also broadcast on MTV Russia. According to the memoirs of Ilya Bachurin, the then program director of the channel, most of the innovations on MTV Russia did not meet the expectations of viewers and management: as a result, the channel's youth audience has sharply decreased. Since 2006, as well as on other decimeter channels of those years, interactive TV games in the Call-TV format were released on MTV Russia. At different times there were TV shows "Catch your luck", in the daytime and at night.
In June 2007, 100% of the shares of the TV channels "MTV Russia" and "VH1 Russia" were bought by the company "Prof-Media". The new owner immediately began the reorganization of the TV channel in order to convert it from music to entertainment. As part of this procedure, in January 2008, the general director Leonid Yurgelas was dismissed from the TV channel — the management of Prof-Media was dissatisfied with the results of his work on MTV Russia. If in the period 2004–2005, the share of MTV never fell below the 1-1.4% mark, then in 2006–2007, the share of the channel fell: in different months it ranged from 0.8% to 1.1%.