Where does this come from, and can I check it?

MTV opened in 1981 and made the promotional film a career maker. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a music fact?

Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Music television began with one video

MTV opened in 1981 and made the promotional film a career maker Labels soon spent serious money on videos because airplay sold records. Visual style started shaping how artists were signed and packaged. The channel eventually moved to reality programming as viewing shifted online. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Movies & Television trivia

More facts like this

Letterboxing kept the wide shape on square setsBlack bars above and below let a widescreen film fit an older television Telecine machines copied film onto tapeA flying spot scanner read each frame and turned it into a video signal VHS beat Betamax by recording for longerVHS could hold a whole evening on one cassette where Betamax could not MTV's first video was Video Killed the Radio StarThe channel went on air on 1 August 1981 Mechanical television used a spinning discA spinning perforated disc scanned the picture one line at a time Hip hop started at a Bronx block partyA DJ isolating the percussion break gave dancers more of what they wanted

Tags: video, television, history

Music television began with one video: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: MTV opened in 1981 and made the promotional film a career maker. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.