Upon M2's launch, the new 24-hour music video network proved to be as popular with viewers as MTV hoped. However, as digital cable technology was slow to expand into major cities, cable companies refused to add yet another music channel to their limited, pre-digital channel lineup, arguing that with MTV, VH1, CMT, Fuse and other niche music video options, the audience for 'music on TV' was being sufficiently serviced. Even the fact that M2 generated huge ratings whenever it was tested—by the subscription companies themselves—in free previews around the country was not enough to convince the pay-TV gatekeepers to add M2 to their lineup. As a result, in its first couple of years on the air, M2 was restricted to satellite television plus the few, small markets where digital cable was then available, limiting its audience reach to around 12 million homes by 2000. M2 also broadcast live over the internet during its early years, which meant it was similarly ahead of its time in a period when few people had broadband internet connections. Due in part to the unexpectedly slow roll-out of the fledgling channel, MTV Networks decided to rebrand M2 in the first quarter of 1999, changing the name to MTV2 in the hopes the new image would signal a new start. As digital cable expanded nationwide, MTV2 continued its own inexorable growth.