MTV2 Makeover Detailed

February 4, 2005


MTV2 will re-launch with a new look this Sunday during halftime of the Super Bowl. Now more details have been revealed about the changes at the network. Oddball, offbeat graphics and bumpers will take the place of the current, computerized look of the channel, almost going back to the earlier days of the original MTV. EVP of Marketing Tina Exarhos told the Associated Press, "What MTV2 is, while a departure from MTV, is really hearkening back to the early days of MTV." Adds MTV2 GM David Cohn, "We used to be simply a music complement to MTV. Now we're a real business. We had to change and evolve."

MTV2 will go back to debuting a new video every Tuesday, and airing it all day long. The first new clip to get the treatment will be Green Day's video for their next single, "Holiday." MTV EVP of talent and music Tom Calderone told the AP, "We want Green Day to be a kind of house band for MTV2, the way people feel about MTV being the Eminem Network."

A sneak preview of the network's makeover will air both on MTV and MTV2 simultaneously during the Super Bowl halftime show. The channel officially re-launches at midnight. The new MTV2 will also takeover all the giant TV screens in Times Square on Monday for a half-hour.

Mazerati said:

thats when it was a good channel.no commericals just some promos....and the videos of course.


they also need to bring back 120mins! :sobs:

MTV used to do this? Almost sounds like they play one video all day.

I wish they would go back to when they had VJs who had personality. It seems as though they have done away with the classic MTV VJ. I dont think that the ones on TRL count.

Back when Booker and jancee dunn was on MTV2 was the bomb 99'-2000"

*they also need to take off all the TV shows (Pimp my ride and Bam comes on enough on MTV)
*stop showing soo much pop and focus on rock and underground hip hop
*stop showing 50cent and eminem specials like they're new
*bring back dance videos
*bring back the request hour
*show videos from back in the day just out of the blue
[Edited 2/5/05 7:32am]

Can't polish a turd.

Sounds like I'm not missing much from MTV2.

Mazerati said:

Anarchy, indeed.

I loked at my digital programming guide and they have crap scheduled.

Personally, I'm getting tired of all the hip-hop -- it's all over the radio, and "owns" several different music channels. It'd be nice to have some of the old MTV back -- a nice eclectic mix of rock, pop, and soul where no one genre is king.

Based on what I've read, this is not a good thing.

From Billboard.com:

Revamped MTV2 To Focus On Hip-Hop, Rock

MTV Networks on Monday (Feb. 7) will unveil a revamped version of MTV2. The relaunch will move the channel further away from its wide-open, all-music-video roots to programming focused almost exclusively on hip-hop and youth-oriented rock genres like emo and punk-pop -- an initiative MTV2 is billing as its "two-headed dog" strategy. The network will reportedly target the 12- to 24-year-old male demographic.

As part of the relaunch, MTV2 later this year will roll out a slate of original long-form programming that offers a mix of music-based and lifestyle shows.

When MTV2 was introduced in 1996 (then known as M2), it was positioned as a replacement for MTV's former incarnation. However, MTV2 has moved increasingly toward long-form programming, and the number and variety of videos it airs has declined.

Critics see the new direction as evidence that MTV Networks is further backing away from music videos, and that even the formats still supported by the channel will be narrowly defined and marginalized in much the same way pop music is on the flagship MTV.

For their part, MTV executives are unapologetic. "The days of MTV2 of being the Jewel-to-Tool station are over," says Tom Calderone, executive VP of music and talent programming for MTV/MTV2/MTVU. "The reason is simple: No one liked it. If you don't stand for anything and you don't have people who are deeply in love with you, you don't sell records, and nobody cares."

Calderone points out that while the branding for MTV2 will be new, the programming will stay much the same. In fact, MTV2 already has been focusing its music programming largely on rock and hip-hop, he says. "Our music-video hours have increased by double-digit percentages because we have been providing since the summertime of last year a very focused, hit-driven rock and hip-hop music channel," he says.

-- Brian Garrity, N.Y.

http://www.billboard.com/...1000789458

Remember when MTV2 played every video from A-Z that ever aired on MTV? I wish they would do that again!