The MTV era is now a thing of the past. The legendary network that once defined the musical tastes of an entire generation has announced that it is shutting down five of its channels in the UK. The decision comes amid a backdrop of declining popularity of traditional television and streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime growing rapidly.
According to The Sun, MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and Live HD will stop broadcasting on December 31, 2025. Only its flagship channel, MTV, which is today better known for reality shows than music videos, will remain on the air.
Industry representatives are calling this a “dark day for the music industry.” According to the publication’s source, “MTV was once the engine of the entire industry, but now only a shadow of it remains.” Classic television is rapidly losing its audience as viewers move en masse to online services – in 2023 Ofcom recorded the biggest drop in viewing in the entire monitoring history.
The closure of the canals was a continuation of the large-scale outages that began at the beginning of the year. At the time, MTV’s British production team was facing a bloody round of layoffs, many of whom had been with the channel for decades.
MTV isn’t the only broadcaster suffering from viewers shifting to streaming. Other major TV channels, including ITV, have made similar cuts in recent years. But experts are confident: despite the loss of the previous format, the MTV brand will remain in one form or another – albeit not as a symbol of the musical era, but as something reminiscent of it.
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone magazine had previously published an updated list of the 250 best songs of the 21st century. The publication noted that over the past 25 years, music has become truly global, and a hit can now be born anywhere from Seoul to San Juan. Read more here.
Source: People Talk
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
