strating the network’s achieved legitimacy.
In 1981, MTV (music television) was launched
with the iconic symbol of an astronaut planting the
MTV flag on the moon. Geared to a generation of
teens and young adults who had been raised on tele-
vision and rock and roll, MTV showed music vid-
eos—a new type of programming combining popu-
lar songs with image tracks. Young “veejays” (video
deejays) hosted the network’s programs and intro-
duced the videos, in much the same fashion as their
radio counterparts. Music artists collaborated with
filmmakers to transform the music video from pro-
motional marketing to artistic expression.
As MTV’s popularity grew, the channel became
an arbiter of young-adult tastes and trends, influenc-
ing 1980’s American culture generally. It therefore
began to be targeted by organizations worried about
its lack of diversity. Others criticized the distinctive,
fast-paced editing style of MTV’s programs and vid-
eos, which they believed had a negative effect on
teen viewers’ attention spans. Throughout the
1980’s, MTV continued to reinvent itself, recogniz-
ing changing trends in music and producing its own
original programming. MTV created VH-1 (later
VH1), a second music channel featuring music for
baby boomers.
ESPN started as the Entertainment & Sports Pro-
gramming Network, a twenty-four-hour channel de-
voted to sports. The network met the challenge of
programming twenty-four hours a day by covering
international events and obscure sports such as the
“World’s Strongest Man” competition. Its program-
ming expanded significantly beginning in 1984,
when the network was acquired by ABC, which had
significant sports resources, including both rights to
cover future events and a library of past, “classic”
sports coverage. In 1985, the sports network’s name
was officially changed simply to ESPN, which went
on to become a respected brand name in sports
broadcasting. In 1987, ESPN came of age when it
concluded a deal for partial broadcast rights with
the National Football League (NFL).
Children’s Programming and Home Shopping Nick-
elodeon was an early cable presence with children’s
programming. It began as a local broadcast channel
called Pinwheel. Pinwheel became a cable channel
in 1979 and changed its name to Nickelodeon in
- Recognizing that its target audience went to
sleep early, the network modified its programming
in 1985. It continued to broadcast children’s shows
during the day, but at night it broadcast reruns of old
television shows that would appeal to parents nostal-
gic for their own childhood. The nighttime broad-
cast was labeled Nick at Nite. Nickelodeon, MTV,
and VH-1 were owned by the same company, Warner-
Amex Satellite Entertainment. In 1985, they were ac-
quired by Viacom. In 1983, the Disney Channel
launched and brought favorite Walt Disney charac-
ters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to a
new generation.
Home Shopping Network (HSN) began as a local
cable-access venture selling surplus items. It found a
home on national cable systems, however, providing
the home shopping experience almost twenty-four
hours a day and eventually developing products that
were available exclusively through the network. A
second home shopping channel, QVC (quality, value,
convenience), launched in 1986. Home shopping
networks offered a department store’s variety of
items for sale—jewelry, apparel, kitchenware, tools—
with sales that lasted for hours or minutes, thus en-
couraging buyers to make impulse purchases.
More Choices Three Spanish-language stations—
Telemundo, its subsidiary Galavision, and Univi-
sion—addressed the growing Latino population in
the United States with programming geared toward
Latino cultures and concerns. Univision was the first
company in the United States authorized to receive
and rebroadcast foreign television programming via
satellite. Telemundo began broadcasting in 1987
with world and national news programs.
The Discovery Channel aired documentaries and
other nonfiction programming, primarily about the
natural world. Bravo and the Arts and Entertain-
ment Channel (A&E) concentrated on film, drama,
documentaries, and the performing arts. Lifetime
focused on women’s programming and health is-
sues. Black Entertainment Television (BET) started
in 1980, broadcasting programs geared toward Afri-
can Americans, such as music videos featuring black
artists. Turner Broadcasting Systems (TBS) launched
Turner Network Television (TNT) in 1988 with sports
and colorized movies.
Religious Programming Television ministries were
also beneficiaries of cable’s growth in the 1980’s. Ca-
ble television made stars out of charismatic Christian
ministers Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Pat Rob-
ertson. Robertson, an entrepreneur as well as a pop-166 Cable television The Eighties in America