MTV Classic was a British pay television music channel from Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel was launched in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 1 July 1999 as VH1 Classic. It focused on music videos and music specials from the 1960s onwards, sometimes featuring music videos and concert footage from as early as at least the 1940s or 1950s, such as Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" from 1942. It also aired videos from the 2000s and early 2010s. Every November and December from 2013 until 2021, MTV Classic played Christmas-themed music branded as MTV Xmas. "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles, the first video to air on the original MTV in 1981, was also the first music video to be played when the channel was rebranded as MTV Classic on 1 March 2010.

History

Since the rebrand, Viacom had rebranded other international channels as MTV Classic. On 1 May 2010, VH1 Australia was rebranded as MTV Classic and on 10 January 2011, MTV Networks Europe launched an Italian version of the same channel, replacing MTV Gold. MTV Classic began broadcasting in widescreen on 6 March 2012.

Closure

On 31 March 2022, the channel closed down, and was replaced by MTV 80s. The final video played on the channel was "Goodbye" by Spice Girls.

Pluto TV revival

In late 2022 a feed of archive music videos, listed on the guide under the MTV Classic name, was made available on the British iteration of Paramount Global's streaming television platform Pluto TV, following shortly after the addition of other MTV-branded music video streams (film soundtrack stream MTV Movie Hits and seasonal pop-up MTV Xmas) to the lineup. The Pluto streams are available at no cost to users and are separate to the MTV broadcast TV channels.

Programming

Temporary rebrands

Viacom occasionally rebranded MTV Classic to a different name to air different kinds of music.

Availability

The channel was available in the United Kingdom on Sky, Virgin Media, BT TV and TalkTalk Plus TV and in Ireland on Sky Ireland and Virgin Media Ireland. MTV Classic was previously available on Virgin Media UK but it was removed from the platform on 28 August 2010, along with MTV +1 and MTV Shows, to make room for Comedy Central HD It returned to the platform on 7 January 2020 as a replacement for VH1 which had closed that day.

Logos

MTV Classic's on-air identity was similar to MTV's international identity. MTV Classic utilised the new MTV logo along with specially commissioned idents by ICC. These idents were also used on other MTV Classic channels around the world including MTV Classic Australia, which launched in May 2010. On September 14, 2021, MTV Classic revealed a new on-air look and new logo as part of MTV's 2021 global rebrand.