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NickMusic

NickMusic is an American pay television network and spin-off of Nickelodeon that mainly carries music video and music-related programming from younger pop artists that appeal to Nickelodeon's target audience, with some videos edited for content to meet a general TV-PG rating applied across the network's broadcast day, or replaced with a lyric video instead.

Not to be confused with Nickelodeon Records.

Country

United States

Nationwide

480i 4:3 (SDTV) presented in 16:9 letterbox

May 1, 2002 (2002-05-01)

MTV Hits (2002–2016)

Like its sibling music video-only networks BET Jams, BET Soul, and CMT Music, NickMusic is based on an automated "wheel" schedule that was introduced during the early years of MTV2. A new loop starts at 6 a.m. Eastern Time, and is then repeated at 2 p.m. and 10 p.m.

History[edit]

As MTV Hits[edit]

The network launched on May 1, 2002, with its programming composed entirely of music videos. As with MTV Jams, the network was named for a daily program on MTV; in this case, MTV Hits, which was that network's main pop music video program. The network composed of current hit music videos, along with a few older videos from earlier in the year, as well as a few from the late 1990s. The network maintained a commercial-free format, other than internal promotions for MTV and MTV-branded properties.

Programming[edit]

Current[edit]

The network has no individual or original programs; TeenNick Top 10 was cancelled in mid-2018. In electronic program listings, the titles of each 'block' merely delineate an hour in those listings and outside those titles denoting video theming, aren't mentioned on air.


Bumpin' Beats normally composes of mainly dance and pop songs, while the Crushworthy theme is mainly made up of artists with heavy social and musical appeal. The Hit List denotes the most popular songs on the charts, with Videos We Heart playing the same role. Pop Playback is mainly made up of older music videos or those from the recent past, while Weekend Vibes is mainly a light pop block. Nick Mix is normally made up of videos from past and present Nickelodeon musical artists or video remixes of the network's promotions, along with isolated musical interludes in the network's series. Finally, Fresh Faces composes of material from newer or 'on the verge' younger artists.

Availability[edit]

NickMusic is available on most pay-TV providers, along with Verizon FiOS, and AT&T U-verse. It is one of the few remaining MTV Digital Suite original channels that is not available on DirecTV (the then MTV Digital Suite having been created to provide an advantage of digital cable-exclusive channels to providers). One of the last cable holdouts, Time Warner Cable, added the music channels of the MTV Digital Suite in the summer of 2012 back when it was branded "MTV Hits" as part of a wider agreement to give TWC's tablet application access to Viacom's networks.[4]