VH1 Europe
VH1 Europe, also known as VH1 European, is a music television channel from Viacom International Media Networks Europe, based on the American Channel of the same name. This version of VH1 is very different from its American counterpart, since it has never ceased to be a proper music channel, playing a wide variety of music programs on a daily or weekly basis. VH1 Europe was in 2013 the only major music channel in Western Europe still broadcasting in the 4:3 ratio while others broadcast in 16:9 widescreen. Since May 2014, VH1 Europe now is broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen.
It appeared for the first time in the United Kingdom in 1994 and the version airing in the UK was subsequently distributed across the whole of Europe. However, its current pan-European feed was officially launched in 2002, hence becoming a separate service from the UK-aimed channel VH1 UK.
This European version of VH1 is very different from its American counterpart, since it has never ceased to be a proper music channel, playing a wide variety of music programs on a daily or weekly basis. VH1 Europe covers many styles of music through a comprehensive selection of music videos ranging from the 1970s to today, using MTV Networks Europe's London-based music video library. In 1994–1999 and since 2014, there was the 1984–1987 and 2011–present American VH-1 logo.
Since August 5, 2010, most of the European feeds of VH1 are one common music channel which airs commercials. Starting this date, VH1 started to air the first commercial in some regions, thus following the trend of the regional resellers (cable companies) to air specific language and area commercials. The regional cover-up aspect of VH1 by this date has been less aggressive as it did not have commercial and shopping shows. The revenue came only from subscribers and since then the change in its politics means VH1 now allows third parties to overlap commercial clips with regional commercials. This increases the revenue by an additional percentage and it cannot increase the low audition percentage it has on the TV market.
Until early 2008, VH1 Europe's schedule was largely based upon music programming, although some shows imported from VH1 US or MTV US (including classic episodes of Beavis & Butt-head, Pop-Up Video and The Osbournes) could be seen during primetime hours as well. In February 2008, the station received a major makeover in its timeslot programming, with further specialist shows being added to the already existing ones, featuring selections of music videos linked by common themes (VH1 Themed, Smells Like The 90s, VH1 Pop Chart, Boogie Night, Flipside, Chill Out, So 80s, Viva La Disco, Sunday Soul, VH1 New, VH1 Rocks, Top 10, Final Countdown, Then & Now, VH1 Classic, Smooth Wake Up, Saturday Night Fever, Best Of Charts, Greatest Hits, Aerobic, Espresso, VH1 Oldschool, Cover Power...). In January 2010, the only daily hour of non-music related programming on VH1 Europe – formerly airing between noon and 1 p.m. – was replaced by music video-based programming. The channel's schedule now purely consists of music programming.
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