Launched 1 May 1992 Audience share 0.1% (2008, ) Broadcast area Sweden | Closed 1 August 2010 Country United Kingdom | |
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Owned by Modern Times Group/Viasat | ||
ZTV was a Swedish television channel owned by Viasat. Launched in February, 1991, as a daily afternoon show on TV3 and TV4. In May 1992 it became a channel of its own on Swedish cable networks. The intention was to create a Swedish version of MTV and thus the focus was primarily on music. Since May 2006, most of its programming consisted of music videos. ZTV's last day was August 1, 2010 for all customers except for Boxer and Com Hem, who continued to distribute the channel indefinitely in a limited version. MTG's new sports channel TV10 took over the transmissions of other operators.
History
ZTV was initially also a combined radio station called Z-Radio. The sound from the television program went out also in radio through a number of community radio frequencies around the country. ZTV began broadcasting on their own channel position in 1992 and was owned by MTG, who also owned TV3 (Sweden) and TV6 (Sweden). Aside from music videos the channel featured many shows produced in Sweden. Although they were low budget they also featured new ideas and many of them received cult status. Many of the presenters went on to become stars on the major networks with ZTV being viewed as a breeding ground for new talent.
For a few years, there was a Danish ZTV, but it eventually merged with Danish TV6 to form TV3+ and was closed down in 1996. There were also plans to merge the Swedish ZTV with the Swedish TV6, but this never materialized.
As the years went on, ZTV moved from Stockholm to London and started broadcasting American imports such as the Late Show with David Letterman and The Simpsons. ZTV started broadcasting 24 hours a day in 2000. In 2002, a Norwegian version of ZTV launched, ZTV Norway.
September 2004 marked a significant change in style for the channel. Instead of being a youth channel, ZTV would now target men. As a result, most of the in-house ZTV shows were cancelled and replaced by Champions League football and wrestling.
In May 2006, MTG started a new channel called TV6. This channel took over most the programming from ZTV, as well as its frequencies in the cable networks. This meant that ZTV would only broadcast music videos and lost most of its distribution.
In late 2007, ZTV started to broadcast various anime-series such as Berserk, Black Lagoon, Ergo Proxy, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gungrave, Naruto, Ninja Scroll, Paranoia Agent and Samurai Champloo.
There was also a Z magazine available for some time.