Music Television in the UK

Music Television started in the USA with the rise of MTV. Europe and the UK followed this trend with thier own version, MTV Europe. The UK has had many spin-offs including, VH1 (Aimed at an older audience) and CMT (Country Music Television) which is aimed at a niche audience. these spin-offs have loosened MTV's grip on the UK market.

Some television channels such as The Box are jukebox channels, where the viewers chose what is played next by calling in or texting a premium phone line to select from a list scrolling at the bottom of the screen. This way, the music channel creates another form of revenue by doing very little themselves.

In 2000, EMAP (East Midland and Allied Press) a magazine which as diversified by going into radio has now decided to add to its only TV asset, The Box, by launching four new channels. These channels are based on existing EMAP magazine brands : Kiss, Kerrang! and Smash Hits, which as launched in 2001. Making channels based on existing brands meant that they already had a ready-made image and audience. Another strategy of using MTV's original cheap programming of streaming videos rather than making their own programmes meant they spent very little in comparison to other channels while still making a profit.

Two further channels, The Hits and Magic were launched in 2002. A year later, Scuzz, The Amp and Flaunt were launched which saw MTV's dominance over music TV decline. This meant MTV had to differentiate itself from other jukebox rivials. The channel began to provide their viewers with original programming such as The Real World and Beavis and Butthead, as well as round the clock videos. Scuzz also began to create their own programs to get ahead of their rival Kerrang! with comedy shows like Mullet Man and Cuddly Snuff. A consequence of MTV offering so many channels and programmes meant that this further fragments its audience lowering the income from advertising. MTV sought to find sponsorship from other companies like Motorola, who is popular and a recognised brand.

Seeing the success of the music channel, GWR launched a classical music channel, Classic FM. This allowed classical music to reach a larger audience, which was mainly targeted at females. Other independent channels such as Channel U began, P-Rock TV weren't so successful as they failed to attract advertisers it went off air in 2003.

At the beginning of 2004, there were 23 English music channels, significantly more than the US.
-Seven from EMAP stations.
-Three from BSkyS - Channel U, The Vault and Chart Show TV.
-Classic FM.
-Nine from Viacom - MTV, MTV2, MTV Base, MTV Hits, MTV Dance, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH2 and TMF.
- Zee Channel

In 2001. Of the 25.2 million households in the UK, 24.6 million had TV's (98%). Of these 6.4 million had satellite and 3.8 million had cable. A total of 10.2 million (over 40%) had access to multichannel TV (Freeview). However the average of weekly viewing for each music channel is very low compared to channels such as BBC, ITV or E4. Six minutes per week spent on music channels compared to the 5 hours per week spent on channels such as BBC. These low figures are because of the less sustained manner in watching music channels, as the audience channel surf in search of videos of interest.