Top Germany Viva TV station

VIVA is a free-to-air 24-hour German language music and entertainment channel launched on December 1, 1993 in Germany. The channel was originally operated by private German media group VIVA Fernsehen GmbH until 2004 when the brand was acquired by MTV Networks Europe.

As of 2010, MTV Networks Europe continue to operate VIVA channels in Germany and Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary and the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland

VIVA TV was previously owned by a private German music television channel located in Cologne. It was founded in 1993 by a shareholder group led by Time Warner and headed up initially by Dieter Gorny to compete with MTV, the market leader at the time. Being the first music channel to broadcast in German, VIVA was able to secure a close lead in the ratings for the target audience.

On 21 March 1995 a second channel, VIVA Zwei ("VIVA Two"), was created, concentrating on lesser known and more independently produced music. On 7 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 1995, VIVA has a pop music award ceremony with the annual Comet. *In 2003, VIVA openly expressed an anti-Iraq War view. Later that year, VIVA got bad press after it was discovered that VIVA had given Universal Music an unfair advantage in the placement of their music videos. Today, the company is divided into the "VIVA Fernsehen GmbH", "VIVA Plus Fernsehen GmbH", "Brainpool TV GmbH", and "VIVA Media Enterprises".

Since 2004, the main shareholder is the media company Viacom (98%), which also owns MTV, the main competitor to VIVA, creating a virtual monopoly in German music television. Following the acquisition of VIVA by Viacom, VIVA has been based in Berlin, where MTV Germany is based.

The concept behind VIVA originated in 1992, when the major record labels were frustrated by MTV Europe's decision to program in English to the Germanophone markets and what was perceived as its refusal to play major German-speaking artists. Tom McGrath, then President of Time Warner International Broadcasting, assembled a group of record labels that included Warner Music, EMI Music, Sony Television along with Frank Otto, APAX partners, and DoRo Productions from Austria (Rudy Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher).

With Dieter Gorny brought on board to lead the channel the group applied for cable carriage licenses in the various German Bundesländer, a process that took almost one year. DoRo designed the original programming format which while clearly a music video channel, sought to differentiate itself from MTV not just by having a German speaking voice, but by speaking directly to the differences in pop culture between Germany and the anglophone MTV.

Ironically, before launching the channel, the labels offered to fund MTV in a German speaking version, but were rejected by MTV management at the time who espoused a "one world, one language" programming philosophy (at least for Europe since their Latin American Channels used Spanish and Portuguese).

After MTV introduced a German language version of itself, the competition between the two stations increased. VIVA was widely perceived as the more mainstream oriented channel for younger viewers, while MTV Germany was directed at youths and young adults with some more edgier programming. Since the acquisition of VIVA by Viacom, MTV Germany mostly broadcasts reality TV shows.

VIVA has become the music channel with chart shows and other similar programmes, which are mostly directed at a mainstream audience. Viacom has introduced a programming scheme that allows the station to be run by just 40 people, as a result many previous employees were made redundant.

From January 2011, under a major shake-up at MTV Networks Germany, VIVA continues to be part of MTV Networks Germany's free-to-air package and the channel will become the main music and entertainment brand within Germany while complemented by its sister channels MTV Germany and MTV Brand New[2]. VIVA Germany will receive a new look and on-air branding from January 1, 2011[3]. The new look VIVA will focus on music programming while utilizing existing programming from MTV Networks Germany's channels such as Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV.

MTV Networks Baltic think about VIVA Baltic, but MTV Networks Baltic was closed 2009.11.18 with about 3 000 000 EUR debt.

The Next Top Model

The Next Top Model is a Greek reality television show that forms part of the Top Model series. Greek supermodel Vicky Kaya (Greek: Βίκυ Καγιά) assumes the role of Tyra Banks from the original series as the head of the search as well as a mentor for the contestants. The first cycle premiered on October 12, 2009.

The basic premise of the series is a group of young female contestants who live together in a house for several weeks while taking part in various challenges, photo shoots and meetings with members of the modeling industry. Normally, one poor-performing contestant is eliminated each week until the last contestant remaining is declared "The Next Top Model" and receives a modeling contract along with other associated prizes.

The winner of the first cycle was 20-year-old, Seraina Kazamia from Crete, Greece.

The second cycle premiered on October 11, 2010.

Next Top Model contains approximately eighteen episodes and has started with eighteen contestants. At the end of most episodes, one contestant is eliminated. In rare cases a double elimination or no elimination is given by consensus of the judging panel.

Makeovers are administered to contestants early in the season (usually after the first or second elimination in the finals) and a trip to one or more international destinations is scheduled nearer the end of the cycle when a few girls remain in the competition.

Each episode of Next Top Model covers the events of roughly a week of real time and features a fashion challenge, photo shoot, a critique of each contestant and her performance by the judging panel lead by Vicky Kaya, and the elimination of one or more contestants.

The panel includes the former model Jenny Balatsinou, fashion designer Christoforos Kontentos and noted photographer Charis Christopoulos. Each episode is usually associated with a theme in the world of modelling the girls need to excel due to become a successful fashion model.

An episode usually begins with the contestants receiving training in an area concurrent with the week's theme. For example, contestants may get coached in runway walking, posing or applying make-up to suit various occasions. A related challenge soon follows and a winner is chosen by a judge. She receives some sort of prize and she is usually allowed to share the benefits with a certain number of other contestants of her choice.

The next segment is a photo shoot, and each contestant's performance will reflect heavily on her judging for that week. It features photo shoots such as bikini shots, beauty shots and posing in extreme circumstances.

The final segment of each episode is judging. A panel of judges fronted by the host and a number of fashion "experts" assessed task performance and potential. Each contestant's photo is then shown and evaluated by the judging panel. After all photos have been evaluated, the contestants leave the room as the judges deliberate. The elimination process is ceremonious, as one by one the host reveals and hands out the photos of the contestants that have not been eliminated, in order of merit, occasionally saying something to, "Congratulations. You are still in the running to becoming "The Next Top Model". The last two contestants who have not received their photos are brought up as "the bottom two" and the host critiques each one before revealing which of the two has been eliminated.

German beauty girls at work

The Faith and Beauty Society was founded in 1938 to serve as a tie-in between the League of German Girls and the Nazi Frauenschaft.

The idea was that girls should be part in the work for the whole Volksgemeinschaft before they went on to either jobs or ideally to marry and have children.

Membership was voluntary and open to girls 17 to 21. The work in the Society was mainly geared toward priming the girls for their tasks as wives and mothers, and while courses offered were very interesting for many girls and ranged from fashion design to healthy living, the overall idea was to teach them home economics so they would properly run their households, cook well for their families, and care properly for their children.

According to Dr. Jutta Rüdiger, who had taken over as the leader of the League of German Girls in 1937.

The task of our Girls League is to raise our girls as torch bearers of the national-socialist world. We need girls who are at harmony between their bodies, souls, and spirits. And we need girls who, through healthy bodies and balanced minds, embody the beauty of divine creation. We want to raise girls who believe in Germany and our leader, and who will pass these beliefs on to their future children.