It’s not so much a conspiracy theory but more of people not reading articles. Simply a lesson on why you shouldn’t simply read the headlines. Thus, basing your knowledge on the comments to that post. Prior to New Year’s Eve, you probably saw a bunch of out of context claims that the end of MTV was happening. As someone who reads the articles, I knew that wasn’t true. Come New Year’s Day, I saw images of MTV shutdown happening. Yet they failed to post where the image came from and where they were located.
MTV had been a staple of Generation X from the eighties when we “wanted our MTV”. When my friend had a sixth-grade graduation party, he played videos he recorded off the new channel. I never got the channel until high school. However, since the nineties, it was no longer a 24-hour music only station.
However, when MTV started adding additional channels, music only versions of the network were offered. That was what happened with MTV2. Then that changed. Currently, on Cox Cable, you have music only for a couple of channels. MTV2 became what the original channel turned into.
MTV Shutdown Didn’t Happen?
At the turn of midnight on January 1st, the United Kingdom and Europe lost all their music only channels. Not the United States. While I saw posts claiming the “end of an era” was coming here in the States, it didn’t materialize. No one claimed to question it. No one said anything. Like always, when a prediction doesn’t come to past, everyone goes silent.
Channels like MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live all went dark. Overseas. So, the doom and gloom was partly right. For now. The way broadcast rights work in the United States, you can’t just cut and run on a whim. There would be lawsuits for breach of contract. For people that get news off memes, it would come as a shock. However, for people that read the articles, it isn’t a surprise.
For those of you that haven’t watched MTV in decades but still love to bitch about it – it is coming. They seem to be the only ones complaining. Generation X, Millennials, and some Gen Z that watched TRL when they were four or five.
Those couple of music only channels will slowly go away when broadcasting contracts expire. Which means some cable and streaming services will see a trickle down. The gradual MTV shutdown, as some articles report.
People have been complaining about this channel for years. And frankly, you need to shut up. Even if they were still showing music videos, they would be showing modern artists. Like most generations say, “modern music is garbage, mine was the best.”
It’s all a business decision and it’s fine
Again, the youth get their music from YouTube. Cable and streaming services have to pay channels a fee to broadcast them. Ratings are attached to it, which indicates who advertises on the channel. If they can’t charge enough to make money, they will cancel the channel. Old people will listen to oldies stations on streaming or watch it on YouTube.
Whenever you hear old heads say that if they just stayed with showing music video – shut it. You wouldn’t be watching it. Music is available on a lot more services than just TV. When I was a kid, it was radio, MTV, or staying up until 1 am to see some videos on broadcast TV.
Yes, it will be a so-called “end of an era” but it has been gone to many of us for decades. I bet for many of the people complaining, they probably didn’t know there were still channels that were music only. If you did, how much of those channels have you been watching?