Initially, MTV served all regions of Europe, being one of the few TV channels focused on the entire European market.

At the moment, MTV serves a number of European countries, Asian, Oceanian, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean territories.

[6] On 1 August 1987 at 00:01 BST, MTV Europe started broadcasting, with British musician Elton John turning on the signal from Amsterdam.

[7] For the launch, the channel organized a party at the Roxy club in Amsterdam; many stars were invited, such as Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, Fish from Marillion, Terence Trent D'Arby, etc., the main guest and presenter was Elton John.

[11][12][13][7][14][15][16] The channel was launched in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden; a year later MTV Europe expanded to West Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece and Norway.

[7] The original line-up of VJs included presenters from Belgium, Denmark and France, as well as Ray Cokes and Steve Blame from the UK.

[21] A British winner got Madonna's gold stage costume designer for her Blonde Ambition tour in a competition held by the channel; other such cases included a 50-year old Yugoslavian winning a Harley-Davidson that was owned by Billy Idol and a winner receiving radio station.

In the early-mid-1990s, MTV added gangsta rappers with a less pop sound to its rotation, such as Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, Ice Cube, Warren G, Ice-T, Dr. Dre, Us and Snoop Dogg.

The London-based company was short of cash, and sold its assets to reduce debts accumulated during aggressive acquisitions in the 1980s.

[29][30][31] From 1990 to 1996, MTV programs were rebroadcast on Russia's main TV channels – "VID", "ORT", "2x2", "TV-6", "Muz-TV" and others.

[7] In September, the channel was fined a total of £60,000 by the UK's Independent Television Commission for showing obscenities, scenes of sadomasochism and similar things at a time of day when children could be watching.

At the dawn of the new millennium, in the period from 1997 to 2001, MTV broadcast the animated comedy drama series Daria.

[39] MTV Networks Europe continued to launch local channels in other European countries.

[42] Since January 2010, MTV Networks Europe has started rebranding localized websites, creating standards for each country.

In August, music programs disappeared from the air, and reality shows from the American branch of MTV began to be shown instead.

The broadcasting center is still located in London[45][46] MTV European began to focus on viewers from 16 to 35 years old, the audience was more than 100 million people in 43 countries.

Since June 2019, all music videos are broadcast only until 8:00 Central European time, with the exception of the Euro Top Chart on Friday from 9 to 11:00.

MTV Global retains the Czech license (RRTV) in order to ensure the continuation of legal broadcasting in the European Union in accordance with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the Single Market Law after the UK leaves the European Union.

[62] On September 8 and 19, 2022, due to the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the TV channel removed all entertainment programs from the air.