Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first video played on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles, aired at 12:01 a.m. on the 1st of August 1981. The same song was also the final video played on MTV's UK music channel when it closed on the 31st of December 2025.
Manhattan Design, a collective formed by Frank Olinsky, Pat Gorman, and Patty Rogoff, designed the MTV logo in 1981 under the guidance of original creative director Fred Seibert. Rogoff sketched the block letter "M" and Olinsky spraypainted the word "TV" on top of it.
MTV stated that its format was strictly album-oriented rock, which it used to justify excluding most Black artists' videos between 1981 and 1984. Critics, including the channel's own head of talent Carolyn B. Baker, later said the justification was based on research driven by ignorance. Record companies also avoided funding videos for Black artists because they expected MTV to reject them.
CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatened to pull all of the label's videos from MTV unless the channel aired Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". The video was placed in medium rotation once it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, then moved to heavy rotation in the final week of March 1983. When Jackson's "Thriller" video arrived later that year, MTV's support for it was total, and broader R&B and pop programming followed.
On the 13th of July 1985, MTV broadcast 16 hours of the Live Aid concerts held in London and Philadelphia, organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. ABC aired only selected highlights during prime time, while MTV stayed with the event for most of the day.
MTV's dedicated music channels, including MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live, ceased broadcasting on the 31st of December 2025, across Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, and the United Kingdom. As of early 2026, music video programming continues in only five regions: the United States, Japan, Israel, Taiwan, and India.