Cable Music Channel
 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Turner Broadcasting System (1984) Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (1984—1985) |
| History | |
| Launched | October 26, 1984 |
| Closed | November 30, 1984 (1 month and 4 days) |
| Replaced by | VH1 |
The Cable Music Channel (CMC) was an American basic cable channel that was owned by the Turner Broadcasting System. The all-music video channel was created by Ted Turner and launched on October 26, 1984, providing the first national competition to MTV.
Turner later stated that the channel was created for the cable industry as an alternative channel airing against MTV's unsuccessful attempts to increase the fees that cable providers paid to carry the channel by twofold; Turner offered the channel without any carriage fees.
After realizing the channel did not have enough cable providers, the channel was sold to Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (now known as Paramount Media Networks) on November 29, 1984, and shut down the following day, making it the shortest lived cable channels to broadcast. Its channel space was then used for relaunch as VH1 in 1985.