MU121 Chapter 11: Chapter 11 MU121.docx
Document Summary
The emergence of mtv was closely aligned with the development of cable television. In order to develop new markets, cable had to offer something the networks and local stations could not. There was no commercials so customers were required to pay for the service. Mtv became the cable channel that focused on music. The question for the people who developed mtv was not whether teens would tune in, but whether they would watch music television around the clock on a specialty channel. A model was proposed: show nothing but promotional videos provided by the record companies at their expense. Mtv faced challenges in its earlier days one of these was having enough videos to fill the broadcasting hours. At first, record companies were not entirely convinced that investing money in music videos would pay off in additional sales, and many of the first music videos were shot on shoestring budgets.
