MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to basic cable lineups across the nation. The channel is also broadcast over-the-air in selected markets where the former all-request music channel known as The Box was broadcast.
Launched on August 1, 1996, the original purpose of the channel was to give music fans a place to see constant, commercial-free music videos, once the original MTV had started to change its direction from music and concentrate on reality television and soap operas. Today, MTV2 airs a selection of music videos, other music-related specials, and non-music shows focused on youth culture and pop culture. These shows are aimed at viewers in their teens and early 20s.
The beginning of MTV2
MTV2 was originally known as just M2 until the first quarter of 1999. M2 began broadcasting on August 1, 1996 — MTV's fifteenth anniversary — with Beck's "Where It's At" being the first video to air. M2 was created to show more alternative types of music and older music videos than regular MTV did in 1996, priding itself on being a diverse mix of all types of music.
In its first couple of years on the air, M2 was restricted to less widely available digital and satellite television, which limited its viewership to around 12 million viewers by 2000. M2 also broadcast live over the Internet during its early years, which means it was similarly ahead of its time in a period when few people had broadband Internet connections.
Original VJs and shows
Further information: List of programs broadcast by MTV2During the early years of the channel, the music videos ran on 8-hour rotations, so that the same block of videos repeated three times every day: from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and finally from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.. A new block would then start again at 6 a.m.. During these years, M2 only had three VJs: Jancee Dunn, Matt Pinfield, and Kris Kosach. They were rarely seen on screen. They hand-picked all of the music videos that were played for the eight hours every day. Throughout the next few years, Pinfield left to continue hosting shows on MTV and Kosach went on to host programs for TechTV, while Dunn remained at the channel through 2001. M2 was almost always just a random blend of music, though occasional themed specials were aired. One of the first ones was the Smashing Pumpkins Videography , in which all of the band's videos were played in chronological order. M2 would often invite musicians to hand pick blocks of videos or air hour-long blocks (which would eventually be known as Artist Collections ) of videos by one band or musician. On January 1, 1999, the channel played the music video "1999" by Prince continuous all that day.
A-Z video marathon
Starting on January 1, 2000, in honor of the millennium, MTV2 attempted to play every music video in the MTV library in alphabetical order. While a majority of videos were played, many were skipped over. The special ended in mid-April 2000.
MTV2's first relaunch
In late 2000, Viacom, MTV and MTV2's parent company, bought out the independent, viewer-requested "jukebox" music video channel known as The Box. Starting on January 1, 2001, all households that had received The Box began to receive MTV2 in its place, putting the channel into millions of additional households. MTV2 also began adding television commercials to its broadcasts; beforehand, cable or satellite providers interrupted MTV2's feed to insert their own ads. MTV2 also began to separate the types of videos it played by genre. Hip-hop and soul music (hosted by a new VJ, Steph Lova) was played for an hour every weekday at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Rock music played every weekday at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. (hosted by another new VJ: former KROQ and then-WXRK radio DJ Chris Booker).
A new show hosted by Jancee Dunn called MTV2 Request aired every weekday between 11 a.m. and 12 a.m. and again between 11 p.m. and midnight. All of the videos played on MTV2 Request were selected by online viewer requests. Another new show called Control Freak began in 2001, airing weekdays from 8 to 9 p.m. It used real-time viewer voting to select the next video to be played on the channel (out of three choices), while the current video was playing. The majority of the daytime schedule still featured a somewhat diverse mix of rap, rock, and pop, and new and old videos. By 2003, the network had 50 million subscribers in the United States.
Next set of VJs and shows
Further information: List of programs broadcast by MTV2In late 2001, MTV2 held auditions for new VJs. Steph Lova, Jancee Dunn, Chris Booker, and Dave Holmes all disappeared. They were replaced with Jim Shearer (who would go on to become the main VJ in the heavily genre-segregated MTV2), Abby Gennet (who began to host MTV2 Rock , which was now being played between 3 and 5 p.m. every weekday afternoon), Quddus (a regular MTV VJ, who would host MTV2 Soul , which would air between 9 and 11 a.m. every weekday), and La La & DJ Clue (both of whom would host MTV2 Hip-Hop , which was played between 10 p.m. and midnight every weeknight).
During the week between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve of 2001, MTV2 claimed to play every video that had debuted on the channel during the entire year of 2001, Monday through Saturday between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. each day, alphabetically by video title. As had happened with the marathon of all music videos in 2000, several videos were skipped over as a result of unfortunate scheduling and an overemphasis on fitting in commercials.
With the start of 2002, MTV2's block of techno and dance music, AMP , which had aired Sunday nights between 10 p.m. and midnight, was replaced by a show called MTV2 Dance . This became a three-hour block of dance and techno, which featured some more obscure music by little-known techno DJ's, but also incorporated the videos for mainstream, popular dance songs, by artists such as Amber and Kylie Minogue. The show also was known for playing dance remixes of pop videos, such as the Hex Hector Remix of Jennifer Lopez' "Waiting For Tonight," the Metro Remix of Enrique Iglesias' "Hero," and the Thunderpuss Remix of Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right, But It's OK." MTV2 Dance originally aired every Sunday morning between 1 and 4 a.m..
Around this time, 120 Minutes , a long-running show which featured exclusively independent and groundbreaking musicians, who were typically never heard on mainstream radio in America, was moved from its weekly timeslot of Sunday nights between 8 and 10 p.m. to Sunday nights between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Jim Shearer also took over hosting duty from Jancee Dunn.
In spring of 2002, MTV2 altered its format once again. New shows such as Chart2Chart (hosted by Jim Shearer), which aired the most popular videos from the pop, rap, rock, and dance, singles and albums charts, began. Spankin' New was a show that featured the newest videos of the week, and Extreme Rock began to air late nights on weekdays, showcasing hard rock and metal music, such as Godsmack, Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Guns N' Roses. Riffs & Rhymes appeared on the daily weekday schedule between 5 and 6 p.m., and it featured videos and bands that combined the sounds of rock and rap music, such as The Roots, Linkin Park, P.O.D., and Limp Bizkit. Chris Booker, after only a brief absence from the channel, was brought back in order to host the show. Riffs & Rhymes only lasted until the summer of 2002, but Extreme Rock , Spankin' New , and Chart2Chart remained through the end of 2003.
Special programming
In April 2002, MTV2 created a special program, MTV's Most Controversial Videos , to complement an MTV News documentary on the subject. The two-hour documentary on MTV was rated TV-14 and hosted by MTV News reporters Iann Robinson and SuChin Pak. MTV2 aired the top 20 videos in full, many of which were previously banned from MTV, in a three-hour late-night special, rated TV-MA and hosted by Andrew W.K.. In addition to playing the top 20 videos that were discussed on MTV's special, which included The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up," Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," Eminem's "Stan"," Nine Inch Nails' "Closer," and Madonna's "Justify My Love," MTV2 played Björk's "Pagan Poetry," Metallica's "Turn the Page," Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy," The Cardigans' "My Favourite Game," and U.N.K.L.E.'s "Rabbit In Your Headlights" as bonus controversial videos.
During the Memorial Day weekend of 2002, MTV2 played a special called Increase The Beat . DJ Paul Oakenfold hosted the special and played videos from such artists as Fatboy Slim, Beastie Boys, and Jay-Z. The videos were arranged in order from slowest to fastest, based on the number of beats per minute of the song.
MTV2's next major special programming came during the Fourth of July weekend in 2002. For the entire four-day extended holiday weekend, MTV2 aired a special called Box Set Weekend . The channel played an artist's Artist Collection (by this time, there were around 100 episodes of Artist Collection ), and then followed it by o
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