MMTV () is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n 24/7 online TV channel and website ''www.mmtvmusic.com'' first established as a

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

and

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

music television Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels' broadcasting on satellite, cable, or streaming platforms. Music televis ...

channel in 1997. In the early 2000s, MM had a profound impact on the Bulgarian

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

and

popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art

f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...

or mass art, sometimes contraste ...

with its annual music awards becoming one of the most important events on the modern Bulgarian music scene.

History

MM was created by Krasen Karaychev and Toni Tanov in 1997 as the first Bulgarian television channel to play

music videos A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

guided by on-air hosts known as VJs with a television programming similar to

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's .In 1998 several new faces joined the television (Radoslav Kavaldjiev -Roro, Rumyana Blagoeva -Rumi, Stefka Gagamova - Guti, Vasil Katincharov, Mihail Vuchkov etc) and a lot of TV shows were created which appealed to the younger and more diverse audience. Soon MM expanded into a nationwide cable television channel and the first MM Television Music Awards were held in 1999. They were the most recognised music award given to the local artists until 2008. By the early 2000s, MM Television was broadcast by more than 160

and satellite operators in Bulgaria reaching a potential audience of 4.3 million people. In 2003, it started a sister channel - ''M2'', which purpose was to play only music videos performed by Bulgarian bands and artists. In 2005 MM Television also founded its own

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

- ''MM Records''. In 2005 Apace Media Group acquired 66% of the television channel for €660,000. The media company planned to upgrade the TV studios and to continue developing the music-orientated programming. Actually very little of this happened. MM once again changed its ownership in 2007 becoming part of the Balkan Media Group (a joint venture of Apace Media Group and

Modern Times Group Modern Times Group (MTG) is a digital entertainment company based in Stockholm, Sweden. It formed from the media holdings of investment company Investment AB Kinnevik, Kinnevik, which in 1997 was distributed to the company stockholders. It is a ...

). 2007 saw major cuts in the television channel's finances as many of the TV shows were discontinued as well as its sister channel M2. In the beginning of 2009 MM dropped all its shows from its programming and started only to broadcast music videos. With its revenues continually falling after the restructuring of MM's programming, in 2010, after 13 years of existence, the channel owners decided to discontinue it as '' 'it operates in an over-saturated

niche market A niche market is the subset of the market on which a product is appealed to a small group of consumers. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the ...

with many other music channels available in the country, while the potential audience tends to change their way to consume music' '' (according to the channel's executive director Jacob Anderson's statement in April 2010). After ceasing cable transmission on 30 April 2010, MM Television was replaced by the newly founded

sports television The broadcasting of sports events (also known as a sportscast) is the live coverage of sports as a television program, on radio, and other broadcasting media. It usually involves one and more sports commentators describing events as they happen ...

channel Nova Sport. On 10 September 2016 MM Television was relaunched as online TV channel with 24/7 streaming on www.mmtvmusic.com and IPTV/OTT in Bulgaria on Bulsatcom Fusion, Vivacom, SKAT, Net1 and 32 other local IPTV platforms. Worldwide MMTV broadcast can be watched through its partners Neterra, Elemental TV, BG time, TVbg. The new owners of MM Television are former employees of the music channel who spent the last 16 years living and working in London, United Kingdom. MM New Media Group Ltd acquired the rights for the brand and all merchandise involved. Since 2017 MMTV online has been media partner of several prominent European festivals like Eurosonic Noorderslag, EXIT Festival and Amsterdam Dance Event. Their production crew has filmed specials from the festivals as well as interviews with popular musicians and DJs. In 2019 MMTV aired a weekend dedicated to the EXIT Festival with a special selection of filmed shows given to the channel by the organisers.

MM's Annual Music Awards

In 1998 MM started organising its own MM's Annual Music Awards. The show soon became one of the most respected events on the modern Bulgarian music scene that gathered the most popular Bulgarian bands and artists each year. The annual music awards were presented until 2007 when a MM's Decennial Music Awards were organised. The event marked the ten-year anniversary of MM's but eventually turned out to be the last show of this kind to be organised by the television channel.

Notes

:1.As of 10 September 2016 only online broadcasting.

References

{{Television in Bulgaria Defunct television channels Television networks in Bulgaria Defunct music video networks Music television channels in Bulgaria Television channels and stations established in 1997 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2010