ed MTV, VH-1, Nickelodeon, and Nick at Nite.
MTV earned $87 million in advertising revenues in its first 18 months, and, in May 1983, the station has 125 advertisers. The advertisers were purchasing 30-second to 120-second spots for $1,500 to $6,000. In 1984, MTV's net revenues were $71 million. By 1986, revenues increased to $111 million, with a profit of $47 million. By 1987, MTV was available in 35.8 million homes. By the end of 1988, MTV had advertising revenue of $20 million and an audience of 22 million.
MTV influenced the major channels to add their own music video programs, such as NBC's Friday Night Videos and ABC's Hot Tracks. It also influenced other cable shows, such as WTBS's Night Tracks, the USA Cable Network's Night Flights, and HBO's Video Jukebox. There were also soul video shows, which featured black artists, as well as religious music video programs. These other music video shows tried to fill the gap in MTV's format. MTV was also the first network to begin broadcasting in stereo, which many other networks then did, also.
MTV began a new network called VH-1, with the first broadcast January 1, 1985. VH-1 was a 24-hour music channel that was designed for an older audience than MTV's. VH-1 aimed at viewers between 24 and 54. Bob Pittman, by then executive vice-president of MTV, described the atmosphere of VH-1 as one of "comfort, stability and friendliness . . . MTV's atmosphere represents irreverence, zaniness, instability."
In August 1984, MTV became a public corporation and announced that it had made an agreement with four of the major record companies: CBS, RCA, MCA and Geffen Records. This agreement gave MTV exclusive rights to as much as 20 percent of each company's music videos for the first 30 days. In exchange, MTV gave the record companies millions of dollars in cash and advertising, as well as a commitment to air a small number of videos chosen by the record companies in...