MTV Classic is a British pay television music channel from ViacomCBS Networks UK & Australia. The channel was launched in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 1 July 1999 as VH1 Classic. It focuses 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 has also occasionally aired videos from the 2000s and early 2010s. "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. Every November and December on some dates of each year, MTV Classic will play Christmas-themed music branded as MTV Xmas. Since the rebrand, Viacom has 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.