Country Music Television

Name	Country Music Television (CMT)
Logofile	CMT logo.svg
Logosize	200px
Logoalt	CMT Logo
Launch	March 5, 1983
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Owner	Viacom (operated by MTV Networks)
Headquarters	Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Former names	CMTV (1983)
Sister names	MTV, VH1, CMT Pure Country, CMT Canada
Web	Official Website
Terr avail	Not Available
Sat serv 1	DirecTV
Sat chan 1	Channel 327 (SD/HD) Channel 1327 (VOD)
Sat serv 2	Dish Network
Sat chan 2	Channel 166 (SD/HD)
Cable serv 1	Available on most cable systems
Cable chan 1	Check local listings for details

Country Music Television, or CMT, is an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, and reality programs. CMT is owned and operated by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom.

History

Early years: 1983-1988

CMT was launched on March 5, 1983 at 10:26 AM CST, created and founded by Glenn D. Daniels and uplinked from the Video World Productions facility in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Daniels put together the investor group of Telestar Corporation and the penny stock company Blinder and Robinson in a 3-way ownership split.

Glenn D. Daniels was the creator, founder, Program Director and first President of the network, originally called CMTV but always "Country Music Television." (The "V" was dropped in response to a complaint by competitor MTV). CMT beat its chief competitor, The Nashville Network (TNN), on the air by two days. CMT was positioned to play country music videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while TNN was geared toward programming lending itself to a "country lifestyle". The very first video clip to air on CMT was a performance clip of country music legend Faron Young's classic hit, "It's Four in the Morning".

Gaylord years: 1988-1999

In 1988, Opryland USA and its owner Gaylord Entertainment Company acquired CMT in a $30 million deal. The network was sold by a group led by radio station owner Robert Sillerman and record producer James Guercio. Gaylord had planned to emulate the successful model created by E!, by selling large progamming blocks to other European channels, but these plans never occurred. All shows eventually were canceled by 2001.

In 1995, CMT dropped all videos by Canadian artists without U.S. record contracts in response to the network being replaced in Canada by Calgary, Alberta-based New Country Network. By March 1996, CMT had eventually returned the dropped videos to its playlist after reaching an agreement to acquire a 20% ownership of New Country Network, in addition to renaming it CMT.

CBS/Viacom years: 1999-present

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In 1999, both CMT and TNN networks were sold to Westinghouse, the owner of the CBS network for a reported $1.5 billion. The acquisition of the two country-themed networks, along with the formation of the ill-fated "Eye On People" network, and two regional sports networks (the Baltimore-area Home Team Sports, now Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest Sports Channel in the Twin Cities, now FSN North) formed the CBS Cable division, based in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry and a Charlotte office at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

In 1999, Viacom acquired CBS, assuming ownership of CMT and TNN and folding them into the MTV Networks stable. The resulting moves in 2000 led to the closing of the CBS Charlotte office, while Viacom changed the format of TNN, eventually renaming it The National Network and then simply Spike. Viacom also changed the format of CMT, modeling it after sister networks MTV and VH1 to include shows and movies in addition to music videos. Over time, the number of music videos on the network has continued to decrease with the late May 2006 rebranding of digital cable network VH1 Country to CMT Pure Country.

Despite the decrease in music videos, CMT has experienced significant ratings gains since its acquisition by MTV Networks in 1999. As of 2007, the channel is available in more than 83 million homes. As of 2009, the network now reaches 88 million homes.

Current programming

CMT's current programming features country music-oriented shows (i.e. country music videos, taped concerts, etc.), country lifestyle-oriented shows, and old shows and movies that prominently feature country or Southern-rock music. Much like sister channels MTV and VH1, CMT has become a pop-culture channel in the last few years, with added emphasis on specials, countdowns, and reality programs as well as music videos; of the three, CMT currently devotes the most time to music videos, with at least six hours of the daily schedule set aside for them. They also show shows such as , Trading Spouses, , Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, The World's Strictest Parents, Cribs, and most recently 16 and Pregnant, which have little or nothing to do with country music, particularly in prime time. Reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard have had a semi-permanent place on CMT's schedule in the 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time time slot ever since CMT acquired the show from TNN; the reruns were removed in 2009 for over a year before returning, in their traditional time slot, in September 2010.

See also

CMT (Canada)

CMT Films

CMT Music Awards

CMT Pure Country

Great American Country

References

External links

Official Site

CMT Founder's Site

Category:American television networks Category:American country music Category:English-language television stations in the United States Category:MTV Networks Category:Music video networks Category:Television channels and stations established in 1987 Category:Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee Category:Media in Nashville, Tennessee Category:Former CBS Corporation subsidiaries