MTV Networks

Founded in 1981, during the 1980-82 recession
Revenue n/a
New York

When MTV broadcast its first music video, most people listened to music on the radio—they didn't watch it on TV. Begun on a shoestring budget with a cast of unknown VJs, today MTV (VIA) is a 24-hour global brand. It has spun out the music video networks VHI and CMT, Nickelodeon, Spike TV, Comedy Central, among others.

Kedrosky's reasons for the company's success:
"MTV rode the same unbundling that CNN did. The economic slump impacted MTV in its early days. They operated essentially on Krazy Glue and twine. It helped immensely. Rather than having the problem of multimillion-dollar-a-year hosts—they started the network with people nobody had heard of. When they got too expensive, they dumped them; they had no other choice at the time."