MTV Australia to make welcomed return to free-to-air

As Network Ten gets set to launch The Masked Singer, Australian TV news site TV Blackbox reports that it is launching MTV Australia as a new free-to-air multichannel offering.

Ten is expected to make an official announcement at its 2020 Upfronts event on October 10.

It will be the result of 10’s American parent CBS re-emerging with MTV’s parent company Viacom to create a $30 billion company to take on Netflix and Disney.

They were split up in 2006 and suffered after.

The new deal combines Viacom’s MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and the Paramount film and TV studio with CBS’s broadcast network and its Showtime subscription channel.

TV Blackbox predicted that Ten getting shows like Teen Mom, Catfish, The Hills and Geordie Shore would not only boost the network’s ratings “but Importantly, it would reconnect the third-placed network with an all-important younger market they’ve struggled to attract in recent years”.

In recent years MTV Australia has actively worked at local versions of MTV Unplugged, TRL and Call N’ Response.

Also Read: Simon Bates on MTV’s big return to original music programming

MTV actually began in Australia in 1987 as a live-to-air on Nine.

It screened late night on Fridays and Saturdays hosted by Richard Wilkins and Joy Smithers with music news from Alison Drower.

That year also saw the launch of Rage on the ABC and Video Hits on Ten.

After MTV ended its run on Nine on June 14, 1996, ARC Music Television launched three years later as a 24-hour music channel on pay-TV.

After a year on air, ARC was approached by MTV Networks in the US and rebranded MTV Australia in a deal with Austereo, Village Roadshow Entertainment and Optus Vision.

MTV Australia is currently available as a part of Foxtel’s service and Fetch’s digital channel packs.