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MTV Tr3́s

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Type	cable, television network, satellite television network, broadcast television network
Country	United States
Availability	National
Owner	MTV Networks (Viacom)
Launch date	September 25, 2006
Former names	MTV en Español (1999-2006)
Official website	MTV Tr3́s site on MTV.com

MTV Tr3́s (tres, Spanish for the number three) is an American cable, satellite and over-the-air network that prides itself as a bi-cultural entertainment destination. It is rooted in the fusion of Latin and American music, cultures, and languages, bringing the biggest names in pop, urban, and rock music. MTV Tr3́s includes lifestyle series, customized MTV music franchises, and news documentaries that celebrate Latino culture, music and artists. The channel is targeted toward Latinos as well as all other Americans aged 13-25.

MTV en Español

When the channel originally launched as MTV en Español in 1999, its programming was like that of MTV2 in its early days, with 8-hour blocks of videos which repeated 3 times a day.

During those times, most of the videos shown were those of popular Spanish-speaking artists in the United States, including salsa, reggaeton, and hip-hop. The channel also aired some videos by Latin rock and pop artists.

Late in 2005, however, the channel's programming underwent serious changes. First, it started to broadcast music videos in English, most notably pop and hip-hop videos. During that time, the channel also began to show its own Top 20 Countdown on Saturdays and Sundays. Later on, MTV en Español would drop the 8-hour blocks of videos for a random rotation of videos for the whole day.

Later on, the channel decided to reserve a 3-hour block for the less-rotated Rock en Español videos from the past and present on MTV Latin America. The channel also broadcasted shows such as Making the Video and other shows originally produced by MTV for Latin America.

Acquisition of Más Música

Más Música, founded in 1998, was an American cable, satellite, and over-the-air network that aired music videos from various Latin American music styles, including salsa/cumbia, regional Mexican, and contemporary Spanish-language hits. The channel was seen as a competitor to MTV en Español.

Founded by Eduardo Caballero of Caballero Television, Mas Musica was not related to the similarly-named MuchMusic music video channel in Canada. Mas Musica carried the minimum required educational and informative and public affairs programming on weekends, and it was carried mainly on low-powered television stations throughout the United States.

In December 2005, Viacom acquired Mas Musica and ten television stations affiliated with it. The sale was completed in January 2006.

Launch of MTV Tr3́s

'MTV Tr3́s unofficially launched on September 4, 2006, when it became available on all cable and satellite systems that previously carried MTV en Español. On September 25, 2006, MTV en Español and Mas Musica officially merged together. The first show on the newly formed channel was the premiere of Mi TRL at 4:30 p.m. ET. There is only one feed for MTV Tres in the United States, as show times advertised on the station do adjust based on time zone. For example, a new episode of Mi TRL, which regularly airs Monday at 4:30 PM Eastern/3:30 Central as advertised on the station, would air at 1:30 PM in the Pacific Time Zone.

Some former Mas Musica affiliates did not pick up MTV Tres. WZXZ-CA in Orlando, Florida reverted back to MTV2 for a very short time, and then starting showing a religious infomercial repeated over-and-over, while WUBX-CA and WBXU-LP in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville, North Carolina metro area went off the air completely.

In its beginnings, the programming schedule of MTV Tr3́s was significantly more repetitive than MTV en Español was in its last days. The channel aired shows such as Hola, My Name is MTV Tr3́s, the Top 20 Countdown, Los Hits (only 2 new shows per week), Mis #1s, Sucker Free Latino (only 2 new shows per week), Latina Factor, Mi TRL, MTV Tr3́spass, Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2006, Making the Video, and Diary . These programs were repeated for most of the day, which greatly reduced the amount of freeform music videos played on the channel. As months passed, however, the programming became more varied and diverse, with changing music video blocks airing several times in the day.

MTV Tr3́s also ran short clips, which continue to air on the channel to this day, promoting the channel. The clips were intended to transition from commercial breaks to regular programming. They include the "MTV Tr3́s: We Speak Your Language" original launch ad campaign, created by mtv directors, Evan Silver and Gina Fortunato, which shows a short clip of a situation where the behavior and attitude of a younger Latino in this generation is different from that of an older Latino. Also, artists of Latino or Hispanic descent may voice their opinions on certain aspects of culture of their native country or of Latinos living in America. They include "Pitbull on Cuban Women", "Jeannie Ortega on Parties", and "Frankie J on being Latino".

On February 5, 2007, the channel held its first "Spankin' New" week, which featured daily music video premieres, the premiere of Wrestling Society X (although the show had been already airing on MTV back in January 30), and the debut of a new episode of Making the Video, which covered the first single, "Qué Hiciste" from Jennifer Lopez's first full-length Spanish-language album, Como Ama una Mujer.

Music videos which are shown on the network's website, along with some of the other website's content, is restricted to continental United States IP addresses only, due to licensing restrictions and media rights conflicts in other countries.

Current programming

Music video shows

Since November 2006, the network has started to play a higher variety of music videos. There are three titles for hour-long, non-genre based blocks of music videos aired in the day, known as Cortadito between 6:00 to 10:00 AM (EST), Videorama from 10:00 AM to 2:00 AM (EST), and 'Videosomnia between 2:00 to 6:00 AM (EST). Other current music video programming not hosted by VJ's include:

• Classic Co. - mix of videos from Latino artists of the 1980s and 1990s such as Selena, Ricky Martin, and Marc Anthony. The title is most likely an English-language play on the Spanish term for "classic", clásico, as the title might stand for "Classic Company". Airs weekdays 10:00 AM (Eastern Time Zone/7:00 AM Pacific Time Zone.
• Los Hits - Based on MTV's Big Ten and Mas Musica's Los Top 10, this show features the most popular videos in rotation on MTV Tr3́s. It was hosted by Carlos Santos or Denise Ramirez featuring interviews with popular artists, but in March 2007 the program dropped the VJ format.
• Top 20 - Similar to Las 40 Principales from Mas Musica, countdown of the top twenty videos rotated on the channel during the week
• TXTO (pronounced "texto", Spanish for "text") - Block of music videos requested by callers who send text messages to the channel, in English or Spanish, dedicating videos to friends or family. Although it is loosely based on Tu Email from Mas Musica; TXTO does not use a VJ who reads e-mails. However, there may be occasional VJ spots in the program.
• Rock - aired mostly in the late night hours, a mix of rock music videos from American and Latin-American bands. Among the American bands featured in the lineup are Deftones, which contain Latino vocalist Chino Moreno and turntablist Frank Delgado, and Incubus, which contain Latino drummer Jose Pasillas.
• MixMex - music videos of artists from Mexico.
• El Sonidero - block of urban music videos, focusing on artists performing within the genres of hip-hop, reggaeton, and R&B, focusing on Spanish-speaking artists with occasional American videos from non-Latino, English-speaking artists.

These music video programs are hosted by VJ's who mostly host in English.

• Sucker Free Latino - Hosted by L. Boogs, this show similar to Mas Musica's Zona Urbana and MTV's Sucker Free plays the popular music videos in the genres of hip-hop, R&B, and reggaeton, mostly from Latino artists, but some videos may come from American artists like The Fugees or Ludacris, with interviews
• Mi TRL - Based on MTV's Total Request Live and Mas Musica's Pidelo, with a rotating set of VJ's, new episodes air weekly on Mondays (with rebroadcasts throughout the week on the channel as well as rebroadcasts on MTV hits), with the top ten requested videos based on voting on the MTV Tr3́s website, featuring live performances and interviews.
• Indie 101 - Hosted by Martin Chan, this show similar to Mas Musica's Rokmania focuses on indie rock bands from Latin America.

MTV Tr3́s uses opening sequences for music video shows similar to MTV2. To indicate the beginning of a music video program, a still photograph of a place from a city or neighborhood would be displayed, with MTV Tr3́s' "accented three" (3́)logo animating and leading to a monochrome title card with the music video program title displayed.

Recently, MTV Tr3́s has also broadcast other MTV music-related specials such as MTV Goes Gold: New Year's Eve 2007 and Common and will.i.am Present: The Music of Freedom Writers. Occasionally, Making the Video may air on MTV Tres, if the video is performed by or features an artist of Latino or Hispanic origin.

Reality shows and other programming

Currently, some reality shows also air on the channel.

• Pimpeando - actually an hour-long combination of Pimpeando, the Latino-themed spinoff of Pimp My Ride, as well as an episode of the actual Pimp My Ride program. The hour also features music videos featuring fancy automobiles, such as "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age and "Music" by Madonna.
• Quiero Mis Quinces - the version of My Super Sweet 16 aired in MTV Latin America, which is broadcast in Spanish with optional English subtitles.
• Dancelife - Hosted by Latina pop singer Jennifer Lopez, this reality program follows the lives of dancers who want a professional career in dancing, including spots in music videos. The show is followed by Dance Adictos, which airs dance-pop music videos and segments on learning the dance moves featured in the videos.
• Wrestling Society X - Already airing on MTV, reruns of this show will begin airing here weekly starting February 7, 2007, at 5:30 PM (EST).

These types of programs air for no more than two hours at a time, thus allowing more music videos to be played during the day.However recently rebroadcasts of these programs were being aired in favor of Videorama and other music video shows which could lead the network back to its repetitive state it was in prior to November 2006,which could subsequently once again cause it to be unwatchable by those who prefer to see music videos.

Criticism

Although the channel was advertised as bilingual, the programming is predominantly English. The official site is run in English with the exception of random Spanish words inserted into sentences. An online community named Faces of MTV Tr3́s is also conducted in English. The same style of language is used by the VJ's on the channel, speaking mostly in English with the exception of a few words. Programming and interviews conducted in Spanish are subtitled in English, however most English programming is not subtitled in Spanish.

Some stations carrying MTV Tr3́s, such as KMMC-LP serving the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, California metropolitan area, tend to go off the air for a few hours during the daytime, displaying a screen reading “Video Trouble: This channel is temporarily off-line due to technical difficulties”, therefore pre-empting certain music videos or programming. This is likely due to the fact that the stations are mostly low-power stations that are not as well-maintained as higher-powered stations.

Current broadcast affiliates

Most of the broadcast stations that air MTV Tres serve communities highly populated by Latino and Hispanic populations. On the merge of Mas Musica and MTV Tres, however, former Mas Musica affiliate WZXZ-CA in Orlando, Florida converted to MTV2, and WUBX-CA and WBXU-LP in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville, North Carolina metro area went off the air completely. MTV Tres is carried nationwide on most major cable and satellite television providers, including in areas that do not have an MTV Tres affiliate.

These are the current broadcast stations airing MTV Tres.
Arizona

• Bullhead City/Kingman/Lake Havasu - KMOH-TV 6
• Phoenix - KEJR-LP 43

California

• Fresno - KHMM-CA 14/KZMM-CA 22
• Los Angeles - KBEH-TV 63
• Sacramento - KMMK-LP 14/KMUM-CA 15
• Salinas/Monterey/Santa Cruz - KMMD-CA 3
• San Diego - K61GH-LP 61 (also can be seen around nearby Tijuana, Mexico)
• San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose - KMMC-LP 40
• San Luis Obispo, California - KMMA-CA 18
• Santa Barbara, California - KVMM-CA 41
• Santa Maria, California - KQMM-CA 14
• Stockton/Modesto, California - KMMW-LP 47

Florida

• West Palm Beach, Florida - WBWP-LP 57

Illinois

• Chicago -WCHU-LP 55

Indiana

• Indianapolis - WBXI-CA 47

Maryland

• Baltimore - WWTD-LP 49

Nevada

• Laughlin - KMOH-TV 6

Texas

• Austin - KGBS-CA 32
• Corpus Christi - KCBO-LP 49
• Del Rio/Eagle Pass, Texas - KVAW-LP 16 (also can be seen in major cities in Mexico near the border between Texas and Coahuila province in Mexico)
• McAllen/Harlingen - KSFE-LP 67/KTIZ-LP 52
• San Antonio, Texas - KMHZ-LP 11/KGMM-CA 44

Washington, DC

• WWTD-LP 49

See also

• MTV
• MTV2

External links

• MTV Tr3́s
• Faces of MTV Tr3́s
• MTV Tr3́s TU PRIDE

• Television channels and stations established in 2006
• MTV Networks
• American television networks
• Music video networks
• Viacom subsidiaries