Founded in 1993 by shareholders led by Time Warner(headed by Dieter Gorny) to compete with MTV, the market leader at the time. The 1st music channel to broadcast in German. On 21 March 1995 a 2nd channel, VIVA Zwei ("VIVA Two"), was created, concentrating on lesser known and more independently produced music. On 1 January 2002 it was renamed VIVA Plus and its concept changed to a channel dedicated purely to pop and mainstream music for a younger generation of viewers. VIVA Plus shut down on January 14, 2007. It became Comedy Central Deutschland the next day. Since 2004, the main shareholder is MTV's owner Viacom (98%), creating a monopoly in German music TV. VIVA has become the music channel with charts shows and in THE UK it has replaced TMF being launched there on October 26th 2009.