39 Facts About MTV Games

MTV Games has spawned numerous sister channels in the United States and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have since gone independent.

MTV Games tested the format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, on New York City's WNBC-TV in the late 1970s.

MTV Games sparked the Second British Invasion, featuring existing videos by UK acts who had used the format for several years .

In 1985, MTV Games spearheaded a safe-sex initiative, in response to the AIDS epidemic, when it was perceived that many teens might be more receptive to the message there than from their parents.

MTV Games began its annual Spring Break coverage in 1986, setting up temporary operations in Daytona Beach, Florida, for a week in March, broadcasting live eight hours per day.

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MTV Games VJs hosted blocks of music videos, interview artists and bands, and introduced live performances and other programs from the beach house location each summer.

MTV Games held week-long music events that took over the presentation of the channel.

MTV Games's was brought back in early 1989 and stayed until 1992.

From 1998 to 2003, MTV Games aired several other music video programs from its studios.

MTV Games aired Hot Zone, hosted by Ananda Lewis, which featured pop music videos during the midday time period.

Around 1999 through 2001, as MTV Games aired fewer music videos throughout the day, it regularly aired compilation specials from its then 20-year history to look back on its roots.

An all-encompassing special, MTV Games Uncensored, premiered in 1999 and was later released as a book.

MTV Games became known for its reality programming, some of which followed the lives of musicians; The Osbournes, a reality show based on the everyday life of Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne and his family premiered in 2002 and would become one of the network's premiere shows.

Simultaneously, MTV Games spawned the paranormal reality tv genre with the broadcast of MTV Games's Fear in 2000.

The block would rebrand as Music Feed in 2013 with a reduced schedule and, unlike FNMTV Games, featured many full-length music videos, news updates, interviews, and performances.

The temporary shift in MTV Games's programming culminated the following week with the channel's live coverage of Jackson's memorial service.

On that same day, immediately after the death of Prince, MTV Games interrupted its usual programming to air Prince's music videos.

Around this time, MTV Games introduced a static and single color digital on-screen graphic to be shown during all of its programming.

Many have suggested that MTV Games made an attempt to be relevant in the modern entertainment world with the rebrand.

MTV Games was the major influence on the growth of music videos during the 1980s.

MTV Games refused other black artists' videos, such as Rick James' "Super Freak", because they did not fit the channel's carefully selected album-oriented rock format at the time.

Magyar Televizio, Hungary's public broadcaster who has a trademark on the initials MTV Games, registered with the Hungarian copyright office, sued the American MTV Games network for trademark infringement when the Hungarian version of the music channel was launched in 2007.

The teens later sued, with MTV Games later apologizing and ordering the segment's removal.

MTV Games received significant criticism from Italian American organizations for Jersey Shore, which premiered in 2009.

The controversy was due in large part to the manner in which MTV Games marketed the show, as it liberally used the word "guido" to describe the cast members.

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In December 2016, MTV Games online published a social justice-oriented New Year's resolution-themed video directed towards white men.

The video was then reuploaded to their channel, with MTV Games claiming the new video contained "updated graphical elements".

In 1992, MTV Games started a pro-democracy campaign called Choose or Lose, to encourage over 20 million people to register to vote, and the channel hosted a town hall forum for then-candidate Bill Clinton.

In recent years, other politically diverse programs on MTV Games have included True Life, which documents people's lives and problems, and MTV Games News specials, which center on very current events in both the music industry and the world.

Additionally, MTV Games aired a documentary covering a trip by the musical group Sum 41 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, documenting the conflict there.

MTV Games is aligned with Rock the Vote, a campaign to motivate young adults to register and vote.

In 2012, MTV Games launched MTV Games Act and Power of 12, its current social activism campaigns.

MTV Games Act focuses on a wide array of social issues, while Power of 12 was a replacement for MTV Games's Choose or Lose and focused on the 2012 US presidential election.

In 2016, MTV Games continued its pro-democracy campaign with Elect This, an issue-oriented look at the 2016 election targeting Millennials.

In 1985, MTV Games saw the introduction of its first regular sister channel, VH1, which was originally an acronym for "Video Hits One" and was designed to play adult contemporary music videos.

The first channel was MTV Games Desi, launched in July 2005, dedicated towards Indian Americans.

The third was MTV Games K, launched in June 2006 and targeted toward Korean Americans.

However, the rebranded MTV Games Classic had few viewers, and declined quickly to become the least-watched English-language subscription network rated by Nielsen at the end of 2016.

From 2006 to 2007, MTV Games operated an online channel, MTV Games International, targeted to the broad international market.