MTV

MTV (originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television channel and the flagship namesake property of the MTV Entertainment Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Skydance. Launched on August 1, 1981, the channel originally aired music videos and related music entertainment programming guided by television personalities known as video jockeys (VJs). MTV soon began establishing its presence overseas, eventually gaining an unprecedented cult following and becoming one of the major factors in the rise of cable programming, leading American corporations to dominate the television economy in the 1990s. Roughly four decades after its inception, the channel significantly shifted its focus away from music in favor of original reality programming for teenagers and young adults.