MTV Classic (formerly VH1 Smooth, VH1 Classic Rock, and VH1 Classic) is an American
pay television
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
owned by
Paramount Media Networks
Paramount Media Networks is the division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of its television channels and online brands. The division was originally founded as MTV Networks in 1984, named after MTV. It would be known under this ...
. It was originally launched in 1998 as "VH1 Smooth", an
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
and
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...
channel. It was relaunched as "VH1 Classic Rock" in 1999 (later renamed "VH1 Classic" until 2016), with an emphasis on
classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...
. On August 1, 2016, in honor of
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 35th anniversary, the channel was rebranded as "MTV Classic", and now exclusively airs
music video
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 ...
s from all genres from the 1980s to the early 2000s.
, MTV Classic is available to approximately 39,000,000 pay television households in the United States.
History
1998–1999: VH1 Smooth
VH1 Smooth launched on August 1, 1998 as a part of the "Suite" digital package, delaying the initial launch date of July 31, 1998.
The channel that focused on
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...
,
new age
New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
, and
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
music.
The first music video to play on the channel was a
cover
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of c ...
of "
Makin' Whoopee
"Makin' Whoopee" is a song first popularized by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical ''Whoopee!''. Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics and Walter Donaldson composed the music for the song as well as for the entire musical.
The title refers to celebrating a m ...
" by
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ens ...
.
1999–2016: VH1 Classic

Relaunched on August 1, 1999 as VH1 Classic Rock, the channel primarily featured a
mainstream rock
Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada.
Format background
Mainstream rock stations represent a cross between classic rock, active rock and alternativ ...
/
adult hits-formatted mix of music videos and concert footage from the 1960s to the 1980s, though it originally included a wider range of genres and time periods. The channel name was quickly changed to VH1 Classic in 2000.
The network played only music videos upon launch, but quickly expanded to a varied line-up of music-themed programs. This included themed music video compilation blocks (with categories such as
heavy metal music, or popular music of the 1980s), full-length concerts, music documentaries such as the ''
Classic Albums
''Classic Albums'' is a British documentary series about pop, rock and heavy metal albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.
Format
The TV ser ...
'' and ''
Behind the Music
''Behind the Music'' is an American documentary television series that initially aired on VH1 from 1997 to 2014. Each episode profiles and interviews a popular musical artist or group, examining career beginnings, roads to success and any resul ...
'' series, music-oriented films (such as Prince's ''
Purple Rain'' and ''
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers (formally, The Fabulous Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul music, soul revue band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who met and began collaborating as original cast ...
''), and an original talk show, ''
That Metal Show
''That Metal Show'' is a talk show that premiered on VH1 Classic on November 15, 2008 and ended on May 9, 2015 with a span of 14 seasons. Hosted by Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine, the series features three hosts interviewing music ...
''. It also re-broadcast programs first aired on the main VH1, including ''
Pop-Up Video
''Pop Up Video'' is a VH1 television show that shows music videos annotated via "pop-up" bubbles — officially called "info nuggets" — containing trivia and witticisms relating to the video in question. The show was created by Woody T ...
'' and ''
I Love the '80s''.
From January 28 until February 15, 2015, VH1 Classic aired a 19-day marathon of NBC's ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...
'' in celebration of the series' 40th anniversary.
As a result, the network broke a previous record for the longest continuous marathon in television history set by
FXX's twelve-day marathon of ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
''.
2016–present: MTV Classic
In July 2016, Viacom announced that on August 1, the 35th anniversary of the original
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 launch, the network would rebrand as MTV Classic. The channel's programming continues to focus on classic music videos and programming (including notable episodes of ''
MTV Unplugged
''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV. It showcases recorded live performances of popular music artists playing acoustic instrument, acoustic or "unplugged" variations of songs. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999. F ...
'' and ''
Storytellers
Storyteller, story teller, or story-teller may refer to:
* A person who does storytelling
Arts and entertainment Film
*'' Oidhche Sheanchais'', also called ''The Storyteller''; 1935 Irish short film
* '' Narradores de Javé'' (''Storytellers'') ...
''), but skews more towards from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The rebranded network schedule also included reruns of past MTV original series such as the 2011 ''
Beavis and Butt-Head
''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, Stupi ...
'' revival and ''
Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County''.
[ The network's relaunch took place at 6:00 a.m. ET with a rebroadcast of MTV's first hour on the air, which was also simulcast on MTV and online via ]Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
live streaming, branded as "MTV Hour One" (the channel, as VH1 Classic, had recently aired it to mark the network's 30th anniversary in 2011). Several VH1 Classic programs were retained in the existing schedule, albeit in late night hours.
Three days leading up to December 30, 2016, MTV Classic aired 24-hour block "Decade-a-thons" consisting of music videos from the 1980s leading up to the 2000s. Afterwards, MTV Classic unveiled a new automated all-music video schedule, with all of the older MTV and VH1 Classic series content removed. Since then, the only deviation from the automation has been "roadblock" simulcasts of the annual ''MTV Video Music Award
The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...
s'' and ''MTV Movie & TV Awards
The MTV Movie & TV Awards is a film and television awards show previously presented annually on MTV. It began as the MTV Movie Awards in 1992, when its first edition was held, and adopted its current name in 2017, beginning with its 26th editio ...
'' to remove any competition from other Paramount networks, as well occasional marathons of older MTV shows to promote new series or season launches (as was done with '' The Hills'' to promote '' The Hills: New Beginnings''),
As of the end of the year 2016, the channel was the least-watched English-language channel on most American subscription providers, averaging only 30–35,000 viewers on an average night in primetime (a decline of nearly a third from the already-low numbers VH1 Classic had netted in 2015), which was likely a factor in the network quickly abandoning their new format after five months. As of the end of May 2017, its numbers have slipped even further to an average of 14,000 viewers per night, only ahead of the moribund Esquire Network
Esquire Network was an American pay television network that was a 50/50 joint venture between NBCUniversal and the Hearst Corporation. Launched on October 1, 1998 as Style Network, a spin-off of E!, the channel initially consisted of fashion, d ...
and beIN Sports
beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...
, which at that time of the year is in its non-prime sports season. Even those low numbers were halved by the end of July 2017, as that month's ratings showed it averaging 7,000 viewers per night, ahead of only the beIN networks. If not for the addition of the seven Entertainment Studios Networks
Entertainment Studios Networks is a group of seven high-definition cable networks operated by Allen Media Group, a company owned by and featuring comedian Byron Allen.
The seven networks include Cars.TV, Comedy.TV, ES.TV, Justice Central, MyDes ...
to Nielsen monitoring at the end of 2017, alongside a decline in beIN Sports's ratings, it would have been the lowest rated English-language network in 2017 with a 14,000 viewer/night average. Since then, it has steadily remained the fourth-to-last ranked network, behind beIN Sports and ESN's Comedy.TV and its five-network cumulative "ESN Lifestyles" entry for the remainder of its networks.
Occasionally, the channel interrupts regular music video programming to air specific music videos in tribute to a recently deceased musician. Following Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
's death on July 21, 2023, MTV Classic exclusively aired Bennett's music videos and live performances for the subsequent weekend, regardless of whatever block was scheduled. Some musicians or performers, such as Steve Harwell
Steven Scott Harwell (January 9, 1967 – September 4, 2023) was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist for the rock band Smash Mouth from their formation in 1994 until his retirement in 2021.
Career
Harwell was initially a rapper in ...
of the rock band Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth is an American Rock music, rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994 and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). Harwell's ...
, have their music videos broadcast periodically throughout the day of their death, mixed into regular programming.
Programming
References
External links
*
{{Paramount Global
MTV channels
Music video networks in the United States
English-language television stations in the United States
Television channels and stations established in 1998
Companies based in New York City
Classic television networks
Nostalgia television in the United States