MTV8

MTV8 (formerly MTV) is the Italian-speaking version of the popular 24-hour music and youth entertainment channel. MTV was available free-to-air across Italy unlike its sister channels elsewhere in Europe. The channel launched free-to-air on September 1, 1997 and moved to digital terrestrial on September 14, 2009. On September 16, 2015 the Italian MTV was rebranded as MTV8.; the newly launched MTV Next (from Viacom) is only available on Sky Italia as part of a subscription package. The Viacom-owned channel MTV Music (Italia) remains available free to air on digital terrestrial.

History

Prior to the launch of a 24-hour Italian speaking MTV, MTV viewers in Italy received the pan-European version of MTV. Regionalization of MTV in Europe began in March 1997 with the launch of a German-speaking MTV, followed by a UK branded channel in July of the same year. The Italian channel officially launched in London on 1 September 1997, the day when its transmissions entered into the TV programmings of Rete A.