MTV to axe its music TV channels in the UK

 

MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and MTV Live will all stop broadcasting after 31 December, the BBC understands.

However, the flagship channel, MTV HD, will remain on air, showing reality series including Naked Dating UK and Geordie Shore.

The move reflects a shift in viewing habits, with music videos largely consumed on YouTube and social media rather than television. A spokesman for MTV’s parent company, Paramount, declined to comment.

“We need to support these artists and we all need to dance again and listen to music,” she said. “And I know we do that online in our own little bubbles, but MTV was the place where everything came together. So it really does break my heart.”

MTV launched in the US in 1981 and the fledgling TV channel quickly captured the public imagination by showing pop videos “on demand”, presented by enthusiastic “VJs” (video jockeys), who became almost as famous as the stars they introduced.

Groundbreaking moments in its early years included the world premiere of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, a 16-hour broadcast of the Live Aid concerts in 1985, and the birth of the MTV Video Music Awards.

A European offshoot launched in 1987 and the UK got its own dedicated channel in 1997 – launching with the video for David Baddiel and Frank Skinner’s football anthem Three Lions.

 

The channel gave early breaks to presenters including Cat Deeley, Zane Lowe, and Emma Willis, and later branched out into original programming with series like Ex On The Beach and Teen Mom UK.

Angel, who worked for both MTV Europe and MTV UK in the 1990s, said it was a “wild” time