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As the New Year approached, MTV shuttered its 24-hour music channels. The move wasn’t sudden, as an announcement was made in October that the network’s channels would “go dark” all over the world. On December 31, the U.K. was hit significantly, as MTV Music (started in 2008), MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live channels signed off the air in the country. MTV’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, also ended its music-only channels in Australia, France, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, and Poland—a result of post-merger cost-cutting that’s been confirmed by local media outlets. BBC’s Jono Read shared a video on X confirming the news for U.K. viewers, to which Martha Quinn, one of MTV’s five original VJ’s in the ‘80s, reacted, writing: “Wowww, that’s intense.”
While no update on the music-only channels in the U.S. has been given by MTV’s U.S. representatives (Paramount Skydance hasn’t revealed so much as a reason for the MTV programming cuts), a plan is in place for MTV’s flagship channel to remain on air globally. This means The Challenge, Teen Mom, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Love & Hip Hop will continue, as will the U.K.’s banner programming (Geordie Shore, Dating Naked UK), though Ridiculousness was cancelled on Halloween and will cease production sometime in 2026. Music-only programming will continue in Japan, Israel, Taiwan, and India alongside the U.S. As reported by The Wall Street Journal in September, CEO David Ellison fielded pitches for MTV from the likes of Lucian Grainge, Irving Azoff, and others. Consideration was given to MTV’s future, which included a plan to convert the brand’s music-video identity into an online-only streaming service like YouTube. The $8 billion Paramount Skydance merger inspired other, non-channel cuts at MTV, including the cancellation of the MTV Europe Music Awards and MTV Latin America’s MIAW Awards.
The axing of MTV Music comes 2.5 years after the network’s long-time news division, MTV News, was shut down due to “pressure from broader economic headwinds,” according to Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks president Chris McCarthy. Three minutes before the channels went dark on New Year’s Eve, MTV Music ended where it began: The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the first-ever music video to play on MTV on August 1, 1981. R.I.P. to the end of an era.
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