The end of VIVA

Probably almost nobody will miss the music TV station VIVA which has stopped broadcasting at 14:00 today.

On December 1, 1993, VIVA started as the German competitor of the English speaking MTV Europe. It was created as a platform for German music in particular. Shows were presented by Stefan Raab, Heike Makatsch and Mola Adebisi. Jessica Schwarz, Matthias Opdenhövel, Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, Oliver Pocher, Nils Bokelberg, Sarah Kuttner, Enie van Meiklokjes, Charlotte Roche and Tobias Schlegl were all well-known to VIVA.

In 2004, the station was taken over by Viacom, who also owned the competitor MTV.
After MTV had switched to pay-TV, VIVA also aired programs from MTV as reruns from 2011 on. Since 2014, VIVA has stopped broadcasting 24 hours a day, sharing its channel mainly with Comedy Central. From 2:00 to 14:00, VIVA barely reached its target audience.

Viacom said VIVA had been profitable, but Viacom wanted to focus on its three core brands MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

"The station, launched as a German alternative to MTV, shaped the youth of the 90s and 2000s. VIVA was the YouTube and Spotify of a generation of young people who paid internet access per minute" the media magazine DWDL.de said. The farewell to VIVA came in an unimpressive way: no live program, but only the canned "VIVA Forever" show.

/TWA