SVN began broadcasting in 1974 from one of the former facilities for Houston PBS member station KUHT. In 1985, KUHT reclaimed the building and the student operated television station was shut down. Several members of that organization decided to pull resources together and create their own student operated video network on campus. They decided to work under Campus Activities to increase the chance of survival. In the early 1990s students were able to come to the Student Video Network and create their own productions that were then aired on a closed-circuit television station that students who lived on campus could watch.
Student Video Network started to come to prominence on campus during the mid 90's, beginning under the leadership of Eden S. Blair who served as Chair from 1993 - 1995. Purchasing an AVID editing machine before the Communications Department meant SVN became a training ground for students who wanted to learn how to edit using industry standard equipment.
Blair opted not to go for a third year as Chair and was followed by Nicole Redo for the 1995 - 1996 school year. Redo continued the relationship with the Dean of Students office maintaining the UH News program. She also expanded SVN's community involvement by televising a live debate between candidates for Student Association President and allowing parties to air commercials.
In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison flooded out the entire studio, damaging equipment, software, and SVN's facilities beyond repair. In 2003, University of Houston's Campus Activities decided to restart the program, only playing new video releases with the future intent of bringing back student productions.
In 2006, Gus Forward, a Business Administration undergrad, worked with Campus Activities advisor's as the first President of the organization to allow students to work on original productions and increase the amount of equipment used.
In the summer of 2007, Gus Forward stepped down and Tommy Lee Kirby, a Media Productions undergrad, took over and worked on increasing operating space and obtaining new video equipment. Also during Tommy’s time came the Outdoor Movie Festival started by commercial director Jeremy Malhotra. This event showcased recent and new movies and was run annually during the school year.
At the beginning of the 2008, Luis Gonzales assumed the position of President of SVN after being the Vice President under Tommy Lee Kirby. Under Luis’ tenure as President, he started up a production checklist for producers. His Vice President, Cole Calza, worked with the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication. This strengthened the relationship between SVN and the school.
Then in October of 2009, when Luis resigned from his post, Viral Bhakta became the new President of SVN. He increased the educational and production aspect of the organization for members and University of Houston students. For example he established weekly production classes along with various production form and pre production to post production guidelines. With this came the opportunity for producers to attain marketing and props for their show. Viral also came up with the idea for an application process if students or members wanted to become part of the SVN executive board.
In 2010, Viral was reselected to serve as the SVN President for another year. Also joining the SVN team was Ali Iqbal, who is an owner and photographer at his company (Color Digital Studios), as SVNs Production Manager. Viral established a relationship with movie marketing companies such as Allied Integrated Marketing and Moroch Marketing. Recently, SVN became part of the social media world with a new Facebook and a Twitter account. Our Vice President, Roman Perez, has fully established an Internship program for members and students that will be in use at the end of the Spring 2010 semester.
Student Video Network continues with its annual Outdoor Movie Festival which two showings yearly.