MTV Hits
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| MTV Hits | |
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| Type | Digital cable/Satellite television network (Music) |
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| Country | United States |
| Availability | USA (Only on digital cable services) Argentina (CableVisión Digital) Mexico (SKY, nation-wide digital cable services) Brazil (SKY DTH, NET and TVA Digital cable services) Chile (VTR, Telefónica and GTD Manquehue digital services) Colombia (Telefónica) |
| Owner | MTV Networks (Viacom) |
| Launch date | May 1, 2002 |
MTV Hits is an American music video channel that debuted on May 1, 2002. Unlike present day MTV, MTV Hits plays music videos all day, every day, with very few commercials. Like the other digital MTV/VH1 channels, MTV Hits is based on the original programming format that MTV2 followed, in which eight hours of videos are programmed each day—airing first at 6 a.m. eastern time, and then repeated twice, starting again at 2 p.m. and 10 p.m.. A completely new cycle begins on the next day at 6 a.m..
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[edit] Programming
After a couple of years on the air, MTV Hits' playlist became more predictable and less random than it originally was at its inception. During this time, the new videos that were in heavy rotation were usually played once per hour or once every two hours.
Since 2004, MTV Hits has taken a few efforts to add variety into its programming. Near the end of 2004, MTV Hits began playing more obscure videos, as well as a larger selection of older music videos, than it had previously played.
When an artist is about to release a new album or project that MTV Hits deems worthy of the honor, the channel will often air nothing but programming and videos involving those artists for a period of days. Madonna had a whole 10 days devoted to her on the channel in May 2004, while Hilary Duff had four days devoted to her (August 13-17, 2005) to promote her new album, Most Wanted. Justin Timberlake had a weekend to himself for his most recent album, FutureSex/LoveSounds.
MTV Hits has experimented with airing same-day or same-week repeats of MTV show Total Request Live, with commercials edited out and replaced by MTV promos. However, the schedule of TRL on MTV Hits has been inconsistent and more prevalent during TRL 'theme week' shows.
In December 2005, MTV Hits aired "My Hitlist Month," in which artists such as The All American Rejects, Nelly, Ashlee Simpson, Ryan Cabrera introduced their top 10 videos, sometimes showing their own new videos. Regular viewers also introduced their own hitlists in segments that were either filmed "man-on-the-street" style throughout the New York City area, or filmed at MTV's Times Square studios. There was also a "Breakup Song" hitlist and a "One Hit Wonders" hitlist. MTV Hits since returned to regular video format, but began mixing in some hitlists from December, which many viewers have considered an annoyance. In February 2006, new hitlists were produced, and they are played for the most of the day. "My Hitlist Month" was repeated again in July 2006, this time called "My Summer Hitlist Month", with the addition of a text messaging element in addition to the web elements from the December promotion.
After "My Summer Hitlist Month", MTV Hits returned back to its normal programming, with a new logo bug which faded in and out of several colors, and would fade at the end of a video, then reappear at the beginning of the next. The eight-hour wheel and TRL repeats were retained.
In late August to promote the release of Making the Band 3 group Danity Kane's album, MTV Hits repeated their season of the series several times over a week, along with their episode of Making the Video for their first single, Show Stopper.
Currently, the Hitlists (which had been airing in the last hour of each program loop) have been discontinued as of the end of September 2006.
In the week of December 18, 2006, the Hitlist theme returned under the name "Playlistism." Playlistism consisted of playlists from various artists as well as an mtvU and an MTV2 playlist. However, there to date has been no mention of Playlistism on the website, and some hitlists of the previously aired specials are mixed in.
As of early March 2007, the Playlistism programming remains on the air along with episodes of TRL and Mi TRL and new playlists such as the Black History Month Playlist in honor of black history month and a Spread The Love playlist which aired on Sunday February 25,2007 at 7pm eastern time and will air every sunday thereafter the 7pm start time of the program is actually the time in which the channel prefers that their viewers watch the playlist, it also airs at 11am eastern and 3am eastern,a holy hits playlist featuring,gospel religious and other inspirational videos also airs although this aired before the playlistism programming began.
The possible reason behind the "playlistism" trend currently on the channel is to please its viewers who felt the network was being too mainstream and repetitive,however the previously aired hitlist specials from December 2005 and July 2006 still air quite frequently often for most of the day.
On Tuesday, April 3rd 2007 Beyonce will take over the channel for the Bday on MTV Hits special to celebrate the re-release of her 2nd Solo album and a video anthology which features a video for each song,these videos from the anthology will be shown,and possibly due to other specials like this other beyonce programming such as diary and making the album could also be shown.
Presently, most of the music videos that have ever aired on MTV, VH1, or BET network can be seen on MTV Hits, though the channel usually focuses on airing videos from 1999 to the present day.
[edit] Online presence
During "My Hitlist Month" in December 2005, MTV Hits' website was created, although it has a lack of content due to the fact that the channel only plays music videos and reaches a limited audience. The site's purpose was to promote the "My Hitlist Month" special and to receive hitlists from viewers, and was utilized again for the July "Hitlist" format. A website for its sister channel, MTV Jams, has not yet been created.
[edit] International broadcast
In 2004, MTV Hits was available for the first time in some countries of Latin America such as Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia. In 2007 the channel will become available for digital cable in Argentina
[edit] MTV Hits in the UK & Ireland
In the UK and Ireland, MTV Hits plays chart hits non-stop. There are very few MTV shows on this channel, but there are many music-related themed zones (such as 'Urban Beats' & 'Spanking New Music'). The channel launched on May 1, 2001, replacing MTV Extra.
[edit] See also
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