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MTV (U.S.)

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 December 2024

Description

See also:

Commercial Flags (index)
United States of America

Description

MTV (initials of Music Television) is a U.S. cable television channel launched on August 1, 1981. It is based in New York City, and belongs to Paramount Global.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV, the current logo, established in February 5, 2021, pays homage to the original 1981 logo. The latter consist of an extra bold yellow capital "M" with cyan dropshadow to the right and thick background color edging (shown usually as white or black) and overall at the lower right the letters "TV" in light red (tomato?), in a sharpie/informal script face. Detailed image at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MTV_2021_(brand_version).svg

This logo as an actual flag, with the main letter "M" filling up the cloth rectangle with the protruding bits of "TV" loped off, can be seen as part of the iconic opening sequence for MTV Studios productions, held unfurled by a fully clad astronaut: https://youtu.be/8KmjMdNMYcc and
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8KmjMdNMYcc/maxresdefault.jpg (0′33″ mark).

This is not the same as the simpler full logo on a plain cloth that may have been used in regular, actual flags throughout MTV history (see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV#Logo_and_branding).

This is also not the flag as the original 1980s promo/signature footage that included the "astronaut with MTV flag" motif, as famously seen in the initial seconds of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2RUD_cL0 Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” official music videoclip, in which the flag is squarish, held next to the astronaut instead of above their head (indeed this seems to be original Apollo mission footage with overlaid artwork), and with the logo undergoing rapid color scheme changes.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 December 2024