VH1 Classic makes the big move towards becoming another non-video network.

[TMC]

Big happenings at 1515 Broadway this week. VH1 Executives are asking
Viacom for permission to add non music video programming to their
channel VH1 Classic. Launched in 2000 [ along with 4 other VH1
channels, Country, Soul, Uno, and Megahits ] Classic was suppose to
be a 24 hour music video channel that featured videos from the 60's,
70's, and 80's, at least that is what Viacom thought when VH1 sold
them on the channels. Music video channels cost almost nothing to
run as they do not have to pay for the production costs of new
programs.

In the mid 90's MTV talked Viacom into launching a 24 hour all music
channel called M2, which would be geared towards the fans of music
videos who were upset that MTV had abandoned its original format.
For a few years M2 played the wide range of videos that their
viewers asked for. But around 2000 they changed the format to show
more mainstream videos and far less rare videos. They had also begun
showing commercials and in 2001 went to a tight playlist format [
with very few videos that were not seen on MTV ] with the claim
that "Now that we are showing commercials we have an obligation to
have ratings" and "M2's ratings were failing and we had to program
what was popular in order to reverse the trend" Now relaunched as
MTV2 they began asking Viacom for permission to re-air non music
programs that had already been shown on MTV, such as Wild Boys and
Beavis and Butt-Head. After a year of airings these programs, which
got better ratings than their now gutted playlist, they got
permission to go ahead with original programs produced for MTV2, the
first which should debut this fall.

While MTV took nearly a decade to pull this scam on Viacom [ any
viewer of M2 will tell you the real reason the ratings dropped was
because they stopped playing the rare videos that they watched that
channel to see ] VH1, who wants to have their own second non-music
network, has rushed the process in only four years. When it became
clear that VH1 Classic was the most popular of the 5 channels VH1
launched, they began their work on driving off their viewers just
like MTV2 did. And they used the same general manager who ruined M2,
Eric Sherman.

From the start VH1 Classic only aired a fraction of the videos
available to them in the MTV/VH1 music video library. In many cases
viewers found it odd that many popular classic videos like "Ebony &
ivory" had never aired on the channel and that many times they would
show recent concert clips rather than the original videos made when
these acts were in their prime. So very few videos were added to the
VH1 Classic playlist over the years, not enough adds to maintain
interest, and most of these were either live clips from recent
concerts or stock videos [ videos made without the participation of
the artist and are usualy nothing more than stock footage from old
newsreels or silent films, but sometimes are montage of there past
videos and press photos and in rare instances, like George
Michaels "Freedom", an original video with actors is shot. ] or
movie promo videos [ both cheap performance videos that continuously
cut to movie clips, and videos made up of nothing but movie clips
without the artist ] or videos that had already aired on VH1 Classic
a year earlier and were just being re-added.

But the big insult came with their so called "All Request Hour".
They hardly ever aired the videos that were requested and had an
obvious rotation of the same hand-picked videos by the VH1 Classic
programmers which would air a month apart. When the viewers saw that
Black Oak Arkansas's "Back door man" aired a dozen times while Soft
Cell's "Tainted love" which is one of the most requested videos has
not aired once. And VH1 has used the request hour to taunt and
ridicule it's viewers. Many times they had announced that they
were "digging deep into their music vault" for a video only to show
something that was in heavy rotation. Many times they would read a
request for a rare video but then play a video that was in heavy
rotation on VH1 Classic. They called these mistakes, but then they
rarely ever would play the video asked for after that. One instance
they read an email by someone asking them to play the version of Dan
Hartman's "I can dream about you" that had Dan Hartman in it instead
of the version that was just clips from the movie Streets of Fire
that they showed all the time. After reading the email the VJ
said "Okay, here is the version you asked for from the movie Streets
of Fire...". On several occasions they had read emails asking for
Don Johnson's "Heartache away" and played "Heart Beat" instead. One
email even pointed out that they kept making this mistake and they
still played "Heartbeat". The insults continued this Labor Day.
First they read an email asking them to play more Kinks videos.
Clearly what the email was asking for was for them toplay more than
the four kinks videos they had in rotation. The VJ followed this up
by saying "Okay, here is more Kinks" then played a Kinks video that
was in heavy rotation. This was followed by an email asking them to
play Stevie Nick's "Stand back" and even made a point of saying that
they wanted the original released video from the 80's. This was
followed by the VJ saying "here you are, Stevie Nicks and the whole
gang from Fleetwood Mac singing 'Stand back'" In other words they
showed a clip of "Stand Back" from last years Fleetwood Mac concert
for PBS. [ This was the version of "Stand back" that VH1 Classic
insists on showing in heavy rotation instead of the original video
when Stevie was still young and in her prime, and not the one anyone
has been asking to see. ]

VH1 Classics response to why they were not airing the videos that
their viewers have been asking for has always been "We are having
trouble with the licensing of these videos" or "These videos are
restricted", a problem that no other music video outlet has ever
had. In fact some of the videos they are unable to play are shown on
MTV2 and even as downloads on VH1.com.

VH1 Classics attempt to drive off its audiance has not been as
subtle as had been done at MTV2 as this summer every programming
decision was geared as an insult to its viewers and contrary to what
they had asked for both in emails and on the VH1 Classic message
board. They drove down the ratings and now have just had a high
level meeting with Viacom officials asking for a format change and a
budget to produce original programs. What they pitched to Viacom was
a partial music video channel that also shows what they
called "Classic non music programming from MTV's early years" as
well as "original programming utilizing classic artists". They have
used VH1 Classics failing ratings as a selling point. If Viacom
agrees to this then VH1 will reveal the shows they intend to show on
VH1 Classic. But what is known is this. They have had Dee Snider
under contract for about a year now. Dee originally signed up to
host Metal Mania, but aside from a few VH1 Classic specials has not
yet VJed, even after they dismissed one of their other VJ's, Lynn
Hoffmann. Dee had talked on his website about doing some sort
of "Behind the music/E! true Hollywood" style documentaries that he
said were only four minutes long and would be played in between the
videos. This pats week on the VH1 Classic message board some long
time members who regularly posted their displeasure with VH1 Classic
have been banned from that message board and all their posts deleted
[ one of them was me, and they did it even though I had not posted
anything in days ] In there place came new members who I have no
doubt work for VH1 and claim to be long time viewers who love the
programming and have curiously asked VH1 to start playing "Short
biographical clips based on the artists" and have claimed that
they "remember those shorts" from VH1's past. VH1 and MTV did have
short biographies in the mid 90's, but only for one or two buzz
artists. They later changed this to just featuring these artists in
their news briefs such as the "You hear it first" segment on MTV
news. None of these shorts were Biographical in nature, they only
went so far as to show the style of music these new artists were
into and perhaps reveal if they were related to any other known
music artists.

It is most likely that if Viacom goes for the format change then the
new shows that will be shown on VH1 Classic will be "Bands reunited"
and the new "Partridge Family", although VH1 most likely will get
first crack at those episodes. The classic shows would most likely
be "Just say Julie", "Beavis & Butt-Head" , "My Generation" ,
and "Remote Control" with "Half hour comedy hour", "Liquid
television" and "Real World" to follow. If these shows pull better
ratings than the videos do then expect music videos to be moved to 3
am and VH1 Classic to be an all non video programming channel by
next year. There is also the possibility that they will discontinue
some or all of their other channels and just carry the VH1 Classic
signal over those channels. There is even a good chance that there
will be a relaunch name such as "VH2" or "VH1 Lifestyle" as the
word "classic" would get in the way of producing new programs that
could not be called "Classic" [ not that MTV's Music Television has
no problem with producing non music programs and still call
themselves MTV ]

Last year they pitched the Idea of new programming to Viacom and
were allowed their "Thanksgiving" special, something that all the
VH1 fans hated.

[vashti1999]

I assume, with the spelling errors, that this long ass story is someone's opinion as opposed to a professional article, but it's still interesting. Only time will tell what happens with VH1 Classic. It's a shame that they didn't have a better rotation of videos. And M2/MTV2 totally disgusted me. The whole point of that channel in the beginning was music videos and nothing else, and they've gone and become exactly what it's called: another MTV, with cartoons and sports shows. I wouldn't mind seeing old stuff like Remote Control, but not at the expense of the videos that they should be showing on the "all music" channels.

[theanswerman]

i miss the old vh1.