Viva Zwei was a German

music channel 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 televisi ...

aired and distributed throughout Europe. The channel was launched on 21 March 1995 under the name "Viva II" as a second channel to the main channel

VIVA Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Energy, an Australian petroleum company * Viva Entertainment, a Philippine media company * Viva Films, a Philippine film company ...

in Germany and lasted until 7 January 2002, when it got replaced by Viva Plus. Unlike VIVA, Viva Zwei focused on more alternative styles of music, especially

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...

and

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

alternative hip hop Alternative hip-hop (also known as alternative rap and experimental hip-hop) is a subgenre of hip-hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising "hip-hop group ...

and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

. It was also devoted to music from lesser known bands that could use Viva Zwei to get their music heard and was aimed at a more adult and more sophisticated audience while other music channels such as VIVA and

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 ...

were aimed towards a mainstream audience that mainly consisted of teenagers and young adults. Even though it was not well-known to the music world, Viva Zwei was considered an important music channel for alternative styles of music and an example of a music channel dedicated to less mainstream music and aimed at a less mainstream audience. However, it never managed to become a financial success and piled up losses that led to its discontinuation. The main channel VIVA was discontinued at the end of 2018.

History

1995–1996: The beginning

One of the first shows on Viva Zwei was ''Geschmackssache'', a German TV show that featured singers from around the world. The singer would talk about himself or herself and would show some of their favorite

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 to the viewers. Viva Zwei's logo at the time was a logo in a transverse wave form similar to the VIVA logo with a

Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...

2 (II) sign beside it, and it was put into the upper right corner of the screen. In mid 1996, the logo was changed to a logo similar of a plus sign with the uppercase word "ZWEI" beside it, and it was put into the lower left corner of the screen. The 1995–1996 original Viva Zwei channel (more known as Viva II at the time) aired mostly classic 60s,

70s Ribosomes () are macromolecular machines, found within all cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (messenger RNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order specified by the codons of messenger RNA molecules to fo ...

and

80s music : ''For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89'' This article includes an overview of popular music in the 1980s. The 1980s saw the emergence of electronic dance music and indie ...

as well as current

90s The 90s was a decade that ran from January 1, AD 90, to December 31, AD 99. As the decade began, the Han–Xiongnu War was approaching its end, with the Xiongnu having been on the verge of collapse since the Battle of the Altai Mountains (89) ...

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

and shows like ''Das War...'' (translated into the English language: That Was..., for example: ''Das War 1964'' (That Was 1964), ''Das War 1974'' (That Was 1974), ''Das War 1984'' (That Was 1984), ''Das War 1994'' (That Was 1994) etc.) and ''Geschmackssache''. At this time, VIVA was the mainstream channel for shows.

1997–2001: Change in concept

In 1997, more programming started to be aired such as 2Rock, 2Step, Fast Forward, Trendspotting, Wah² and Zwobot. The channel now focused more on current, alternative styles of music, mainly

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...

and

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

, but also

and

, and started becoming a place for lesser known bands that were not aired on

or VIVA to get their music heard, as well as airing music from bigger name stars such as

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...

2001–2002: Closure

By 2001, the channel became more popular, but its owner,

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

, was losing money; Viva Zwei was generating losses and was not popular enough to survive. In mid-summer 2001, it was announced that Viva Zwei would be shut down. The shutdown occurred on 7 January 2002. The final video on the network was a sendoff video, a special thanks to Viva Zwei's hosts, a music video from Zwobot, and Mr. Explosion from Zwobot. Then, Viva Zwei switched full time into Viva Plus, a channel dedicated to mainstream pop music. This was considered to be a loss to the music world by fans of the old channel as well as music personalities, because it eliminated a medium for lesser known bands to be recognized. Some shows lived on on Viva Plus or VIVA though: ''Fast Forward'', a German music

talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...

hosted by

Charlotte Roche Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche (born 18 March 1978) is a British-German television presenter, author, producer, and actress.Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

Logo history

Shows

Hosts

*Götz Bühler *Rocco Clein *Dirk Dresselhaus (alias

Schneider TM Dirk Dresselhaus (born 28 August 1970 in Bielefeld), better known by his stage name Schneider TM, is a German musician from Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in ...

) *Katja Giglinger * Simon Gosejohann *Markus Kavka *Ill-Young Kim *Tanja Mairhofer *Markus Meske *Nils Neumann *Minh-Khai Phan-Thi *

Charlotte Roche Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche (born 18 March 1978) is a British-German television presenter, author, producer, and actress.Niels Ruf Niels Ruf (born 21 May 1973) is a German television presenter, author and actor. Early life Born in Worms, Ruf attended high school at Rhein-Wied-Gymnasium in Neuwied. Career Writing Ruf worked for one year at the German newspaper ''Rhein-Zeitu ...

*Falk "Hawkeye" Schacht *Patrick Sommer *Herbert *Zwobot

References

External links

Tribute to Viva Zwei website
{{Viacom International Media Networks Europe Defunct music video networks Music television channels Defunct television channels in Germany Television channels and stations established in 1995 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2002 1995 establishments in Germany 2002 disestablishments in Germany VIVA (TV station)