MTV Max

MTV Max is a Finnish pay television channel owned and operated by MTV3. The channel started broadcasting in November 2006 and was originally dedicated to F1 coverage.

History

MTV3+

In November 2002, MTV3 announced the launch of a digital-only channel named MTV3+ for broadcasting mobile games and soap opera re-runs. They were granted a terrestrial minilicense and most of Finland's cable operators carried it.

The channel got a full license in January 2004 and with its possibilities, Formula 1, ice hockey's SM-liiga, Finnish Floorball League, boxing, ski jumping, alpine skiing and some other sports broadcasts were added to the channel's programming. But at the same time, the channel partially turned into a pay-TV channel with a one-time fee of €20 (for Formula 1 & SM-liiga, there was also an extra fee of €70 each). MTV3 used the old minilicense of MTV3+ to create another channel, MTV3+ Extra, which showed overtime periods of SM-liiga matches.

The channel did not focus solely on sports: movies, court sessions and live coverage of reality series were added, while the most notable broadcast was the Tony Halme drug trial in 2004.

MTV3 MAX

File:MTV3 Max.svg

MTV3 MAX logo

On 1 November 2006, 4 years from the channel's beginning, MTV3+ was quit with a very small notice of 28 hours. The channel got replaced by four new pay-TV channels, MTV3 MAX, MTV3 Fakta, Sub Leffa and Sub Juniori.

Sports programming

Motorsports

• Formula One
• GP2
• GP3
• Formula BMW
• Porsche Supercup
• WRC
• Top Gear
• Fifth Gear
• Documentaries branded as MAX.doc

Ice hockey

• Ice Hockey World Championships
• Euro Hockey Tour
• Finnish national ice hockey team (men, women, U20 & U18)
• Mestis

Ski sports

• FIS Cross-Country World Cup
• FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
• FIS Nordic Combined World Cup
• FIS Alpine Ski World Cup

Football

• Premier League

Contact sports (branded as MAX Fight)

• WWE PPV events
• WWE NXT
• WWE Raw
• WWE SmackDown
• UFC
• It's Showtime
• Fight Festival
• CAGE
• Boxing Night
• Enfusion

Other Programming

Talk shows

• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
• Late Show with David Letterman

Comedy

• The Office
• The Benny Hill Show

Reality

• Dhani Tackles the Globe
• Hell's Kitchen
• Scrapheap Challenge

Fictional

• 24

MTV3's Formula One Team

• Oskari Saari - Provides race commentary for live broadcasts. Matti Kyllönen has previously provided commentary for the hour-long race summary shown on MTV3.
• Erkki Mustakari - Reporter and interviewer as well as occasional co-commentator with Saari (such as replacing Jyrki Järvilehto in 2010).
• Timo Pulkkinen - On-track reporter and interviewer for races. Also occasional commentator for Friday practice sessions.
• Mika Salo - Saari's new co-commentator in 2011.

MTV3's Ice Hockey team

• Antero Mertaranta - Commentator, he commentary every Finnish hockey team game.
• Mika Saukkonen - Commentator.
• Juha Taivainen - Commentator
• Juhani Tamminen - Co-commentator.
• Hannu Aravirta - Co-commentator.
• Pasi Nurminen - Co-commentator.
• Tero Lehterä - Co-commentator.
• Teemu Niikko - Reporter.
• Toni Immonen - Reporter.

MTV3's Ski sports team

Cross-Country

• Antero Mertaranta - Commentator.
• Toni Roponen - Co-commentator.

Ski jumping

• Jani Uotila - Commentator.
• Toni Nieminen - Co-commentator.

Nordic combined

• Mika Saukkonen - Commentator.
• Jani Rajalin - Commentator.
• Hannu Manninen - Co-commentator.

Alpine skiing

• Antti Haajanen - Commentator.
• Sami Uotila - Co-commentator.

MTV3's Football team

• Tuomas Virkkunen - Commentator.
• Juha Taivainen - Commentator.
• Sami Hyypiä - Co-commentator.
• Keith Armstrong - Co-commentator.
• Antti Niemi - Co-commentator.
• Peter Enckelman - Co-commentator.

External links

• MTV Max – Official site (Finnish)