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MTV Jams is an American hip-hop/urban music video channel that debuted in mid-2002, replacing MTVX, to the dismay of many rock music fans. MTV's explanation for doing this was that more of the American population would prefer to see hip-hop and R&B music videos, they claimed, rather than the hard rock videos which MTVX had been created to play. Like VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, VH1 Country, MTV Hits, VH1 Mega Hits, and previously MTVX, MTV Jams is available exclusively on digital cable packages or satellite TV providers, such as DirecTV.
MTV Jams is notable for playing music videos all day every day, with very few commercials. Like all the other digital MTV/VH1 channels, MTV Jams is based off of the original programming format that MTV2 followed, whereby 8 hours of videos are programmed each day—airing first at 6 AM--and then repeated twice, starting again at 2 PM and 10 PM. A completely new cycle begins on the next day at 6 AM.
For a while, MTV Jams' playlist was becoming more predictable and less random than it originally was at its inception; at present and during the past couple of years, the new videos that are in heavy rotation are sometimes spun once an hour or once every two hours.
However, more recently, MTV Jams seems to have taken efforts to add variety into its programming. As of the summer and fall of 2004, MTV Jams played more obscure videos, as well as a larger selection of older hip-hop videos, than it had played during the previous year. At present, the breadth of MTV Jams' playlist surpasses that of its sister stations VH1 Soul and MTV Hits, with several hundred more videos played on a regular basis.
Presently, most of the urban music videos that have ever aired on an MTV, VH1, or BET network can be seen on MTV Jams. For specific information on exactly which videos have aired on the channel see List of videos played on MTV Jams.
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