MTV music channels shut down, pop culture loses defining force

Music Television or MTV, the channel that redefined how the world consumed music when it launched in 1981 with Video Killed the Radio Star, is preparing to switch off its international music broadcasting. More than four decades after kick-starting a global pop culture revolution, MTV’s dedicated music channels will close across the UK, Europe and several other markets by the end of the year.

Owned by the United States-based media conglomerate Paramount Skydance, MTV is struggling to compete with on-demand streaming services and social media platforms that have transformed how audiences discover and consume music. Channels including MTV Music, MTV Hits and programmes focused on 1980s and 1990s music will be discontinued in the UK and across much of Europe in the coming months, according to sources cited by AFP. Similar closures are expected in France, Germany, Poland, Australia and Brazil.

The announcement has been greeted with dismay by fans and former MTV video jockeys, the VJs who once became cultural icons in their own right. For many, the shutdown symbolises the definitive end of an era when music television shaped youth culture across continents.

MTV’s decline, however, has been long in the making. According to Kirsty Fairclough, professor of screen studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, the conditions that made MTV revolutionary no longer exist. Digital platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, she told AFP, have “completely refigured how we engage with music and images”. Today’s audiences expect immediacy and interactivity, demands that linear television channels built around rolling music videos can no longer meet.

Shift from music to reality television

James Hyman, who directed and produced MTV Europe’s dance music programmes in the 1990s, agrees that the network thrived in a pre-Internet world. “It was so exciting, because that’s mainly all people had,” he told AFP. Hyman was a central figure behind Party Zone, a programme that celebrated emerging club culture and introduced European audiences to techno, house and trance alongside presenter Simone Angel.

Both Hyman and Angel left MTV when the network fragmented into regional subsidiaries and began pivoting away from music towards reality television in the early 2000s. For Angel, that moment marked the start of a slow erosion of MTV’s original identity. “I was heartbroken when it started to split up into different regions. To me, that was like the beginning of the end,” she said.

Audience data underlines the scale of MTV’s decline. British audience researcher Barb reported that MTV Music reached around 1.3 million UK households in July. By contrast, figures from 2001 show that MTV UK and Ireland’s suite of music channels reached more than 10 million homes.

Angel argues that MTV lost its edge when it moved away from original and experimental music content that helped smaller artists break through. “Initially, MTV Europe wasn’t just about making the most amount of money,” she said. “That sense of experimentation made the channel very exciting.”

Cost-cutting, legacy and cultural impact

The shutdown of MTV’s music channels comes amid broader cost-cutting at Paramount Skydance following its merger earlier this year. The company announced 1,000 job cuts last month and is reviewing its broader cable television portfolio. While some MTV music channels will continue in the United States, and MTV HD will remain available in the UK, the focus will shift decisively towards entertainment rather than music.

For Hyman, that shift hollowed out the channel’s original purpose. “The ‘M’ stood for music, and that’s gone,” he said. At his home in London, he still preserves VHS tapes from the shows he produced, featuring intimate interviews with artists such as The Prodigy and Aphex Twin, experimental visuals and the distinctive aesthetics of 1990s club culture.

Academics and former insiders agree that MTV’s influence was once seismic. Fairclough says MTV and MTV Europe fundamentally reshaped how popular music was experienced, visually and culturally. Landmark moments, from the premiere of Michael Jackson’s Thriller to Madonna’s performance at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, shaped global conversations around music, fashion and youth identity.

Since news of the closures broke, Hyman and Angel have urged Paramount to make MTV’s archives publicly accessible. They argue that demand for the channel’s cultural history remains strong. For Angel, the sense of loss is profound. “It almost feels like MTV has been on life support for such a long time,” she said. “But now that they’re actually threatening to pull the plug, we have all suddenly realised this means too much to us.”