The music television group MTV, which launched a new era in pop culture in the early 1980s, is preparing to close most of its international channels, paying the price for fierce competition with streaming services and online platforms.
In 1981, the launch of MTV with music videos marked a new era in pop music. After more than four decades, the group, which is now owned by the giant Paramount Skydance network, facing fierce competition from online platforms like TikTok and YouTube, is set to largely cease television broadcasting.
According to sources at Paramount, the music channels MTV Music and MTV Hits, with their 80s and 90s programming, will stop broadcasting in the UK and other European countries in the coming months. These channels will also cease broadcasting by the end of this year in France, Germany, Poland, Australia, and Brazil, according to several media outlets.
Some MTV music channels will remain available in the US, and the main MTV HD channel will remain in the UK, but with a focus on entertainment rather than music.
Professor Kirsty Furlow of Manchester Metropolitan University, specializing in pop culture studies, stated that everything that made MTV a 'revolutionary' cultural channel is now in the past. She emphasized that the rise of streaming platforms, TikTok, and YouTube has 'completely changed the way we interact with music and video.'
The audience now seeks 'immediacy' and 'interactivity,' which television broadcasts cannot provide.
According to data from the British audience measurement body Barb, MTV Music attracted only 1.3 million UK households in July 2025, compared to over 10 million households that watched MTV channels in the UK and Ireland in 2001.
Some moments aired on MTV will remain etched in memory, such as the premiere of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video and Madonna's performance of 'Like a Virgin' at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards.
