Viva Zwei was a German

music channel Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite, cable, or Streaming Platforms. Music television ...

aired and distributed throughout Europe. The channel was launched on 21 March 1995 under the name "Viva II" as a second channel to the main channel

VIVA Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia * Viva Air Dominicana * VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company * ...

in Germany and lasted until 7 January 2002, when it got replaced by

Viva Plus VIVA Plus was a German music television channel that went on air on 7 January 2002 at 13:00 based in Cologne, Germany. It was the successor to VIVA Zwei and was initially managed by ''VIVA Media AG'' and later by Viacom, based in Berlin, Germa ...

. Unlike VIVA, Viva Zwei focused on more alternative styles of music, especially

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

and

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

alternative hip hop Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a subgenre of hip hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising " hip hop groups that refuse to confor ...

and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

. It was also devoted to music from lesser known bands that could use Viva Zwei to get their music heard and was aimed at a more adult and more sophisticated audience while other music channels such as VIVA and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

were aimed towards a mainstream audience that mainly consisted of teenagers and young adults. Even though it was not well-known to the music world, Viva Zwei was considered an important music channel for alternative styles of music and an example of a music channel dedicated to less mainstream music and aimed at a less mainstream audience. However, it never managed to become a financial success and piled up losses that led to its discontinuation. The main channel VIVA was discontinued at the end of 2018.

History

1995–1996: The beginning

One of the first shows on Viva Zwei was ''Geschmackssache'', a German TV show that featured singers from around the world. The singer would talk about himself or herself and would show some of their favorite

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

s to the viewers. Viva Zwei's logo at the time was a logo in a transverse wave form similar to the VIVA logo with a

Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...

2 (II) sign beside it, and it was put into the upper right corner of the screen. In mid 1996, the logo was changed to a logo similar of a plus sign with the uppercase word "ZWEI" beside it, and it was put into the lower left corner of the screen. The 1995–1996 original Viva Zwei channel (more known as Viva II at the time) aired mostly classic 60s,

70s Ribosomes ( ) are macromolecular machines, found within all cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (mRNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order specified by the codons of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules to for ...

and

80s music : ''For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89'' This article includes an overview of the famous events and trends in popular music in the 1980s. The 1980s saw the emergence of ...

as well as current 90s

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

and shows like ''Das War...'' (translated into the English language: That Was..., for example: ''Das War 1964'' (That Was 1964), ''Das War 1974'' (That Was 1974), ''Das War 1984'' (That Was 1984), ''Das War 1994'' (That Was 1994) etc.) and ''Geschmackssache''. At this time, VIVA was the mainstream channel for shows.

1997–2001: Change in concept

In 1997, more programming started to be aired such as 2Rock, 2Step, Fast Forward, Trendspotting, Wah² and Zwobot. The channel now focused more on current, alternative styles of music, mainly

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

and

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

, but also

and

, and started becoming a place for lesser known bands that were not aired on

or VIVA to get their music heard, as well as airing music from bigger name stars such as

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...

2001–2002: Closure

By 2001, the channel became more popular, but its owner,

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

, was losing money; Viva Zwei was generating losses and was not popular enough to survive. In mid-summer 2001, it was announced that Viva Zwei would be shut down. The shutdown occurred on 7 January 2002. The final video on the network was a sendoff video, a special thanks to Viva Zwei's hosts, a music video from Zwobot, and Mr. Explosion from Zwobot. Then, Viva Zwei switched full time into

, a channel dedicated to mainstream pop music. This was considered to be a loss to the music world by fans of the old channel as well as music personalities, because it eliminated a medium for lesser known bands to be recognized. Some shows lived on on Viva Plus or VIVA though: ''Fast Forward'', a German music

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

hosted by

Charlotte Roche Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche (born 18 March 1978) is a British-German television presenter, author, producer, and actress.Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

Shows

Hosts

*Götz Bühler *Rocco Clein *Dirk Dresselhaus (alias

Schneider TM Dirk Dresselhaus (born 28 August 1970), better known by his stage name Schneider TM, is a German musician from Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a pop ...

) *Katja Giglinger *

Simon Gosejohann Simon Gosejohann (born 9 January 1976) is a German comedian, television presenter and actor. In 2008, Gosejohann won the "Deutscher Comedypreis The Deutscher Comedypreis ("German Comedy Award") is awarded by Brainpool TV. Because Brainpool's ...

*Markus Kavka *Ill-Young Kim *Tanja Mairhofer *Markus Meske *Nils Neumann *Minh-Khai Phan-Thi *

Charlotte Roche Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche (born 18 March 1978) is a British-German television presenter, author, producer, and actress.Niels Ruf Niels Ruf (born 21 May 1973) is a German television presenter, author and actor. Early life Born in Worms, Ruf attended high school at Rhein-Wied-Gymnasium in Neuwied. Career Writing Ruf worked for one year at the German newspaper ''Rhein-Zeitu ...

*Falk "Hawkeye" Schacht *Patrick Sommer *Herbert *Zwobot

References

External links

Tribute to Viva Zwei website
{{Viacom International Media Networks Europe Defunct German television channels Television channels and stations established in 1995 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2002 1995 establishments in Germany 2002 disestablishments in Germany VIVA (TV station)