MTV is ending its pay channels on December 31st. What this means for music television and why free TV remains in Germany thanks to reality formats.
Traditional music television is almost completely disappearing from European television programming. The music channel is facing the biggest changes since its first US broadcast in August 1981: MTV is cutting its channels. In Germany only a single station remains.
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MTV has been shaping German television since 1997 and has revolutionized the consumption of music and pop culture in its almost 30 years of existence. But with technological progress, usage habits are also changing: although music videos are still popular, they are no longer watched on television, but rather algorithmically curated on platforms such as YouTube, Spotify or Instagram.
Larry Bass, CEO and founder of the independent film and TV production company ShinAwil, believes this development is necessary and inevitable: “The way music television works today, most young people no longer watch music channels made by people who don’t particularly like their kind of music,” he said in an interview with Anton Savage.
Conventional music channels seem superfluous, and the merger of Paramount and Skydance requires a restructuring of the channel portfolio.
The result: MTV is discontinuing its pay channels on December 31st of this year. Those affected include MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and MTV Live. According to Bass, this move is not surprising: “I think it’s just a constant evolution driven by technological change and changing consumer habits.” You have to follow the audience, he emphasized.
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Free TV remains
But contrary to media reports, MTV is not withdrawing completely from Germany at least – the free TV channel remains. The reason: reality TV. In contrast to some international offshoots, the German MTV channel will continue to operate next year. The station has undergone significant changes in recent years. While music videos and shows used to dominate, today reality formats such as “Ex on the Beach” and “Are You the One?” the program.
However, this step represents a bitter blow for MTV as a brand. Only a fraction of the once iconic pop culture phenomenon remains. According to the BBC, special interest channels will be completely discontinued in Europe, Australia and Brazil. An official statement from Paramount Skydance is still pending. One thing is clear, however: classical music television has had its day – even MTV, once a pioneer of the medium, has to reinvent itself.
The end of an era
For many who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, MTV was the Place where you first saw Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk or Britney Spears’ debut. The music channel brought ideas about fashion, music and pop culture to a whole crowd of teenagers around the world. Now the station that was once considered the “youth channel of the world” is retreating from what made it famous: the music itself.