{"id":382733,"date":"2026-01-02T03:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/382733\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T03:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:15:09","slug":"mtv-now-ripe-with-reality-tv-ends-24-hour-music-channels-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/382733\/","title":{"rendered":"MTV, now ripe with reality TV, ends 24-hour music channels in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTV<\/a> shut down five of its music channels in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

The television channel officially stopped broadcasting on its MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and MTV Live channels in the country on Wednesday, Dec. 31, according to<\/a> multiple<\/a>\u00a0reports<\/a>, after reports of the move first surfaced in October<\/a>. 24-hour music channels in other countries are also said to be off-air.<\/p>\n

BBC journalist Jono Read captured MTV Music’s final moments in an X post<\/a> on Wednesday. The station ended its run with The Buggles’ 1979 single “Video Killed the Radio Star” \u2013 the first video ever to air on MTV \u2013 followed by a sign-off animation. At the bottom, a news ticker read: “MTV Music is now closed. Continue watching over at MTV.”<\/p>\n

USA TODAY has reached out to MTV for comment.<\/p>\n

The flagship U.K. station MTV HD remains on air, and its American MTV channels \u2013 including MTV, MTV2, MTV Live, MTV Classic and MTV Tres \u2013 are unaffected.<\/p>\n

Four decades after the revolutionary station aired music videos 24\/7, MTV’s decision is a further sign of the times. MTV’s flagship channel began increasingly circulating reality-show-heavy programming in the 2000s with series like “The Real World<\/a>,” “Teen Mom<\/a>” and “Jersey Shore<\/a>.” The network’s sister channels feature more music-centered content, though with significantly less reach, distribution and revenue.<\/p>\n

In 2023, MTV shuttered its music news division and website, MTV News<\/a>. Its campus-centered offshoot, MTVU, ceased airing at universities in 2018, and currently airs only as a digital cable channel.<\/p>\n

MTV turns 40: Iconic music videos we watched on the network that brought music to TV<\/a><\/p>\n

MTV changed the television landscape with its launch in 1981, playing music around the clock and related programming guided by video jockeys, or VJs<\/a>, and was influential in the growth of the music video as an artistic medium. The channel also evolved in the genres of music videos it promoted. MTV moved from rock to pop and R&B \u2013 and later, hip-hop \u2013 after it broke its own color barrier in the 1980s with the promotion of Michael Jackson<\/a>‘s music videos for “Billie Jean<\/a>” and “Thriller.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MTV ending, shutting down music channels in the UK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MTV shut down five of its music channels in the United Kingdom. The television channel officially stopped broadcasting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,102182,75,18471,102183,102181,102180,101960,37318,348],"class_list":["post-382733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-club-mtv","tag-entertainment","tag-mtv","tag-mtv-hd","tag-mtv-live","tag-mtv-tres","tag-music-channels","tag-music-videos","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}