MTV Tres


MTV Tres is an American pay television network owned by ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks, a subsidiary of ViacomCBS.
The channel is targeted toward bilingual Latinos and non-Latino Americans aged 12 to 34, and its programming formerly included lifestyle series, customized music video playlists, news documentaries that celebrate Latino culture, music and artists and English-subtitled programming in Spanish, imported from MTV Spain and MTV Latin America, as well as Spanish-subtitled programming from MTV.
As of August 2013, MTV Tres was available to approximately 36 million pay television households in the United States.

History

MTV Español

On August 1, 1998, MTV Networks launched a 24-hour digital cable channel, MTV S. On October 1, 2001, the channel was relaunched as MTV Español, focusing on music videos by Latin rock and pop artists. The rebranded network mainly utilized the eight-hour automated music video playlist wheel used by sister networks MTV2, MTV Hits and MTVX without any original programming, except for repurposed content from MTV's Latin America networks.

Acquisition of MásMúsica TeVe

Más Música TeVe, founded in 1998, was a network distributed in the United States on pay television that aired music videos from various Latin American music styles, including salsa, cumbia, regional Mexican, and contemporary Spanish-language hits. Founded by Eduardo Caballero of Caballero Television, MásMúsica TeVe carried the minimum requirements of educational and public affairs programming on weekends, and it was carried mainly on low-power television stations throughout the United States.
In December 2005, Viacom acquired MásMúsica and ten of the network's affiliated stations. The sale was closed down in January 2006.

Launch of MTV Tres

MTV Tres unofficially launched on September 4, 2006, when it became available on all subscription providers that previously carried MTV Español. On September 25, 2006, MTV Español and MásMúsica TeVe officially merged. The first program to air on the newly formed channel was the premiere of Mi TRL at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
In its beginnings, MTV Tres's programming schedule was significantly more repetitive than MTV Español was in its last days. The channel aired shows such as Hola, My Name is MTV Tres, the Top 20 Countdown, Los Hits, Mis #1s, Sucker Free Latino, Latina Factor, Mi TRL, MTV Trespass, Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2006, Making the Video and Diary; the latter two and many other programs from MTV are merely subtitled into Spanish rather than carrying re-dubbed versions. 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.

Relaunch as Tres

On July 12, 2010, MTV Tres dropped the MTV name from its logo and name, officially rebranding as simply Tres. With the rebrand, the network expanded its programming to include additional acquired MTV programs and series from Viacom's Latin American networks. Eventually, Viacom re-sold some of the stations acquired in the Más Música deal in California and Texas back to Caballero Television, and has drawn down the amount of broadcast stations carrying the network.

Programming

Tres broadcasts on an Eastern Time schedule with one national feed for all providers.

Music video programs

Since 2014, MTV Tres broadcasts music videos for at least 22 hours each day. Music blocks that are airing and have aired on the station are as follows:
Current
Former
The following music video programs were hosted by VJ's who primarily host in English:
Some reality and scripted series formerly aired on the channel, which are acquired from the flagship U.S. MTV channel as well as from MTV Latin America and Nickelodeon Latin America. These types of programs aired for no more than three hours at a time, thus allowing more music videos to be played during the day. Some of the programs had little or nothing to do with Latino culture and possibly only aired on Tres to allow Viacom to maintain syndication rights to the programs without threatening ratings on higher-profile networks.
For a short time from July until October 2010, Tres carried a block of programming known as "Tres Jr.", which carried Spanish-language dubs of Nick Jr.'s Blue's Clues and Wonder Pets.
Class A affiliates carried a second feed of the network with English-language repeats of Allegra's Window and Gullah Gullah Island in order to fulfill E/I programming requirements set by the Federal Communications Commission.

Former programming

Most of the broadcast stations that aired MTV Tres served communities with large Hispanic populations. Upon the merger of Más Música and MTV Tres, however, former Más Música affiliate WZXZ-CA in Orlando, Florida switched to MTV2, before affiliating with America TéVé, and WUBX-CA and WBXU-LP in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville, North Carolina market ceased operations completely. Eventually Viacom let their affiliation agreements lapse with their broadcast affiliates, and those other stations have become affiliates of other networks, or ceased all operations. Viacom's carriage agreements with cable providers also often saw the Tres cable channel preferred for carriage over a local affiliate, and most stations were unable to find cable coverage with Tres programming, notwithstanding existing complications involving low-power stations and cable carriage. KVMM-CD, channel 41 of Santa Barbara, California was the only MTV Tres affiliate that still broadcast free-to-air until May, 20, 2019, as well as the only over-the-air broadcast asset that Viacom had remaining, until it was sold to HC2 Holdings on February 15, 2019.

Former affiliates