The Music Factory

TMF (The Music Factory) is a pop music television channel that operates in the Netherlands (TMF Nederland), Belgium (TMF Vlaanderen) the United Kingdom (TMF UK) and Australia (TMF Australia). The brand is owned by MTV Networks International (part of the Viacom conglomerate). Showing only pop videos and locally produced live programming in the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia, it shows some of MTV's and VH1's programmes like "Cribs" and "" in the UK.

TMF Nederland

TMF Nederland was launched on May 1, 1995 as the Netherlands' only local pop station. It was founded by Lex Harding and the Arcade company. Although Dutch viewers could receive MTV Europe, many felt that the Netherlands should have its own national music television channel. The station gradually began to get better viewer figures than MTV, so in 2002, MTV bought shares in TMF. In 1996, TMF started the TMF Awards in the Netherlands. It is headquartered in Bussum.

The channel is very well known in the Netherlands and throughout some of Europe for its emphasis on dance music mixes. It is, however, perhaps infamous for the former over-abundance of "text-in" shows (displaying large panels in the bottom third of the screen filled with text messages that obscure the main image). In 2005, three new channels began broadcasting in the Netherlands under the TMF brand (all owned by MTV Networks Europe):

TMF Dance

Plays German, British, French, Belgium and Dutch trance and house music. Former known as "TMF Party"just any trance really

TMF NL

Plays Dutch Pop music.

TMF Pure

Plays mostly soul and R&B music.

TMF Radio

Launched on December 27, 2006.

TMF Australia

MTV Networks Australia launched The Music Factory (TMF) a fully integrated, multi-platform 24 hour music channel in May 2007. TMF is a truly interactive playground and music channel in one featuring 24 hours of music video programming and viewer-generated content including images, videos, text-based applications and graphics. Furthering the connectivity between the platforms, TMF was the first music channel in Australia to seamlessly connect all platforms as well as simulcast to mobile 24-hours a day via the Optus Zoo mobile portal launched in September 2007.

TMF Vlaanderen (Belgium)

TMF Vlaanderen "(TMF Belgium)" was the first international extension of the TMF brand. It broadcasts entirely in the Dutch language, so it is only available in the Flanders "(Vlaanderen)" region of Belgium. Founded in 1998, its headquarters are in Mechelen.

TMF UK

TMF UK started in 2002 as a counter against Emap's The Hits request music channel on Freeview (Digital Terrestrial Television). It broadcasts on channel 21. It also broadcasts on SKY Digital and Virgin Media (Digital Cable Television). The channel, alongside its music output, shows reruns of successful MTV and VH1 shows such as "Cribs", "Wannabe with Chanelle", "" and "The Fabulous Life Of". There is also a strand of Noggin in the morning for pre-school children (now replaced as Nick Jr on TMF).

External links

* [http://www.tmf.nl TMF Netherlands website]
* [http://www.tmf.be TMF Vlaanderen, Belgium]
* [http://www.mtv.co.uk/tmf/ TMF UK website (on MTV)]
* [http://www.tmf.net.au TMF Australia website]