I've posted numerous times on here about MTV's "network decay" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NetworkDecay), but I still feel inclined in light of them recently holding their biggest show of the year, the Video Music Awards. In all honesty, it seems like 80% of their programming is just reruns of Ridiculousness played over and over. And then as their other feeder shows, there's Teen Mom, Catfish, Ex On The Beach, and The Challenge.

My point here this time is wow can any network survive when all the play is the same show over and over with some new shows mixed in during prime time. To be most direct, all their lineup is literally just Teen Mom, Catfish, Jersey Shore and Ridiculousness every week with a few shows/movies sprinkled in.

But simply put, MTV is basically all reality shows now. But they all do well so go figure. Has MTV as it stands as a network today, become stripped down so lean they can just survive on that one show? Or does Viacom just keep it going to keep the brand alive? I suppose that while MTV doesn't have amazing viewership these days, it does bring in decent enough numbers, and they'll air whatever they can to keep those numbers from sinking.

And now, before you come in and say that YouTube made any need for MTV totally irrelevant (since you can find any video ever, make a playlist of videos you like and autoplay new videos), they dropped the "mostly videos" format way before YouTube was a thing. They started introducing other programs in the '90s, and just kept phasing out video blocks as the other programming brought in better ratings. As a matter of fact, they started airing MTV2 as an alternative channel focused on music in the mid-90s. But even that channel diverged from the format before YouTube was launched.

What more than likely screwed MTV over wasn't the advent of YouTube but the record industry suffering a downturn from not being properly prepared for the digital age of music. This was coupled with them increasing reality programming while at the same time, drastically reducing music based programming. And lastly, they whittled down their target demographic to a very small group.

When MTV was first launched worldwide in 1980 it's mission was and still is a network that would play music videos 24 hours a day and night and with a simple format that brought a new style of channel to television. And soon with music videos from popular artists such as Michael Jackson George Michael David Bowie Pat Benatar to rock bands like Poison Foreigner and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers MTV gave people what they wished for. But when two inventions were introduced to the world in 1986 "I bet you know what things i'm talking about" and if you guessed CDs and CD players i'll give you points for guessing but anyway when CDs hit the market MTV wanted to fit in with the cool crowd and with music artists making hip videos and introduced a whole new world of fashion MTV was still happy with the success this new image brought to them. In the 90's MTV was still keeping up with the rock videos and R&B and rap were starting to become popular gone was the rock videos and in their place was videos of artists like Janet Jackson the late Heavy D Dr. Dre Snoop Dogg R. Kelly and TLC MTV still kept hanging on and as more channels such as VH1 and BET doing music video shows MTV knew that they could still be a success. But I think with the debuts of the game shows Remote Control Lip Service and Singled Out you could tell that MTV was heading toward a new direction and other than game shows MTV had the shows Club MTV and Yo MTV Raps and Total Request Live that showcased the popular artists of the time it was a huge hit. But when The Real World began it started MTV's new image and now with the shows Teen Mom My Super Sweet 16 and others MTV said bye bye to music videos and focused on this image and with the birth of Youtube and Pandora and the invention of MP3 players and the IPod MTV knows that it was hard to keep up with the generation of today. But maybe in the future MTV will return to the formula that made them famous and popular with the world
Bestie

MTV is kept alive by ratings. Ratings equal viewers. Most of those viewers equal uneducated millennials who were raised by single parents with a remote control in one hand and a pipe in the other. The complete dumbing down of America over the last 30 years, which MTV has been a major part of, is also a factor. I wouldn't stop to take a leak on an MTV viewer if they were on fire.

I liked the Rock videos in the 1980's-early 1990's, but MTV screwed that up too.

The reason MTV is still alive is because people pay for cable and the money they pay for those cable bills go to support and keep alive these useless stations. If people everywhere would drop cable and just hook up a rabbit ear antenna, I predict these channels that nobody actually watches would fold like a house of cards.

This too^

When MTV was first launched worldwide in 1980 it's mission was and still is a network that would play music videos 24 hours a day and night and with a simple format that brought a new style of channel to television. And soon with music videos from popular artists such as Michael Jackson George Michael David Bowie Pat Benatar to rock bands like Poison Foreigner and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers MTV gave people what they wished for. But when two inventions were introduced to the world in 1986 "I bet you know what things i'm talking about" and if you guessed CDs and CD players i'll give you points for guessing but anyway when CDs hit the market MTV wanted to fit in with the cool crowd and with music artists making hip videos and introduced a whole new world of fashion MTV was still happy with the success this new image brought to them. In the 90's MTV was still keeping up with the rock videos and R&B and rap were starting to become popular gone was the rock videos and in their place was videos of artists like Janet Jackson the late Heavy D Dr. Dre Snoop Dogg R. Kelly and TLC MTV still kept hanging on and as more channels such as VH1 and BET doing music video shows MTV knew that they could still be a success. But I think with the debuts of the game shows Remote Control Lip Service and Singled Out you could tell that MTV was heading toward a new direction and other than game shows MTV had the shows Club MTV and Yo MTV Raps and Total Request Live that showcased the popular artists of the time it was a huge hit. But when The Real World began it started MTV's new image and now with the shows Teen Mom My Super Sweet 16 and others MTV said bye bye to music videos and focused on this image and with the birth of Youtube and Pandora and the invention of MP3 players and the IPod MTV knows that it was hard to keep up with the generation of today. But maybe in the future MTV will return to the formula that made them famous and popular with the world
Bestie
Hi, Bestie! I wish MTV would return to what made them great, but it is too late. MTV is now a zombie running on fumes. It is just a paycheck to the ones running it till it completely dies. Then they will sell the name to somebody

The reason MTV is still alive is because people pay for cable and the money they pay for those cable bills go to support and keep alive these useless stations. If people everywhere would drop cable and just hook up a rabbit ear antenna, I predict these channels that nobody actually watches would fold like a house of cards.

That’s the exact reason I dropped cable many years ago: I watched maybe 6 channels out of 300. Now I have cable internet ($15 a month) yeah, in this country you have no choice: it’s cable or the telephone company, but still. I have a Roku stick and enjoy many of the “free” channels and only pay $10 a month for some more channels that I actually watch.

The music industry will never be what it was and MTV will never be "Music Television" again.

They actually have an all music video channel called MTV Classic and it's one of the lowest rated cable channels in existence.

Something tells me CBS-Viacom will soon be "ghosting" MTV Classic.

If they were serious about music, they'd show concerts, music videos, or have documentaries on music artists, but those obviously don't get any ratings; it's the trashy shows about uneducated millennials and generation y & z kids, who their core audience are. It makes absolute no sense that they still have the MTV Video Music Awards when the last time they've shown a music video was 20 years ago (I may be exaggerating here, but you know what I mean). They played MTV at my college all over TV screens and it was so nauseating even as a 20-something.

MTV has turned into pure garbage!!

Along with MTV2 and VH1

What I do is to get a HDMI cable to my TV and connect that to my IPhone and watch TV from that. Works great!

I was watching a video about ESPN and I never thought about it but ESPN has a “subscription fee”, basically the network charges the service provider money to have the network and then the service provider charges the consumer. Which to me is awful if you don’t watch ESPN but still have to pay for it through your basic “package”.

I haven’t watched MTV since Reagan was President except for Bravis and Butthead. Daria admittedly was a good show also. I think the network is geared to teenagers and I am no longer a teenager. It is also a mystery why MTV exists because most of that content you can watch online. Dunno.

the last show mtv had was teen wolf!!

When MTV was first launched worldwide in 1980 it's mission was and still is a network that would play music videos 24 hours a day and night and with a simple format that brought a new style of channel to television. And soon with music videos from popular artists such as Michael Jackson George Michael David Bowie Pat Benatar to rock bands like Poison Foreigner and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers MTV gave people what they wished for. But when two inventions were introduced to the world in 1986 "I bet you know what things i'm talking about" and if you guessed CDs and CD players i'll give you points for guessing.

MTV launched on August 1, 1981, CD's were first issued in the U.S. in 1984 with Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A". being the first released. The new format had been released earlier with ABBA's "The Visitors" (Germany 1981) and Billy Joel's "52nd Street" (Japan 1982).

VH1 Classic is what gets closest to a music channel now.

Here's a link from an old thread, showing ratings for 2018, and that MTV gained overall viewers last year. However, MeTV is still ahead of it. MTV last year was #32 overall and #13 in 18-49.

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/12/network-ratings-top-channels-espn-cnn-fox-news-cbs-nbc-abc-1202030597/

VH1 Classic is what gets closest to a music channel now.

It actually rebranded as MTV Classic just recently.

I miss the days when it was metallica and Beavis and Butthead lol.

Total Request Live & various ‘90s MTV Music Shows are the reasons that MTV was still alive at the time

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What killed MTV (https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?722424-Why-is-MTV-still-on-the-air)? Is it because they stopped playing music videos in favor of reality TV shows like The Real World and Jersey Shore? Some of what I talk about:

- Their early history and shows like Yo MTV Raps, Headbangers Ball and The Week In Rock
- How The Real World season 1 changed everything by creating reality TV
- How shows like Beavis & Butthead and Road Rules helped them become a lifestyle channel and stop playing music videos
- How The Osbournes, Meet The Barkers and Newlyweds pioneered Keeping Up With The Kardashians
- How Jackass, Viva La Bam, Wild Boyz and Tom Green pioneered prank channels like Fouseytube and Roman Atwood
- The golden years of shows like Next, Room Raiders, Taildaters, Date My Mom, Cribs, Parental Control and more
- Their last big hits like Jersey Shore, The Hills w/ Lauren Conrad and Life of Ryan w/ Ryan Sheckler


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The slow decline of music videos in MTV’s programming has taken over 20 years, but with the demise of AMTV in 2017, MTV officially doesn’t play music videos on its schedule anymore. I explore the network’s programming evolution throughout its history, and why MTV’s shift from music video blocks to its modern entertainment-focused schedule was likely inevitable. I also offer some commentary on the fall in complexity of the network’s music programming, from the concentrated peaks of the generation-defining TRL to the nominal effort represented by Music Feed, before MTV decided to stop airing music videos altogether.

I think being glued all together with the other Viacom channels has helped it stayed alive. Throw in some new content that generates enough ratings and that's the Viacom formula for running a dozen or so channels but each having very limited content.

And now CBS is glued back to Viacom, and likely the reason YouTubeTV was pressured to add the Viacom channels because of CBS.

Logo was not included in the ViacomCBS-YouTube deal. Logo airs Laverne & Shirley, Three's Company, Mama's Family and It's A Living every once in awhile. That is one of the better Viacom channels because it's like TV Land 2.

But, it is expected that YouTubeTV will have to raise its rates for the inclusion of ViacomCBS channels.

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I think I actually lost brain cells watching that video. According to that guy, MTV only ever played the same five videos over and over, so adding "reality" TV was a good thing. Of course, we know MTV actually aired thousands of videos every year. He's so dumb. :lol:

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MTV has had many ups and downs over its 40 year history. From playing only music 24/7 to creating reality television to TRL & the golden era of cringey 2000s TV. All the way until playing nothing but Ridiculousness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If2tOxy4E70) for 24 hours straight. MTV was one of the best things to happen to music culture, but there unfortunately is nothing there to love anymore.

They just need to sign off,its disgusting.................

I have not watched MTV since I was a teenager in the 1980’s.

MTV has their own TV shows and programming which keeps them going. I am unfamiliar with most of them since I have long aged out of their demographic. The show “Jackass” is one MTV show. I loved Beavis and Butthead. Daria was a good Cartoon also. I never watched Jersey Shore but it was so popular I know some of the actors from that show like Snooky and “The Situation”. Here is a current list of their programming. Like I said it targets kids from 12 to 21. It’s a teen channel and that’s what it’s striving for.

https://www.mtv.com/shows

One dude I never liked was Kurt Loder. He was always SERIOUS, as in too serious for what he was reporting on. You work for MTV dude, not CNN, and people from CNN are more loose than Kurt Loder.

One dude I never liked was Kurt Loder. He was always SERIOUS, as in too serious for what he was reporting on. You work for MTV dude, not CNN, and people from CNN are more loose than Kurt Loder.

That maybe because of how older Kurt was compared to the other MTV personalities.

As a kid I remember enjoying the Music Videos during the day. Than at NITE I watched NICK at NITE Loved The Monkees.

One day saw The Monkees on MTV hoping to catch a music video of The Monkees. I also enjoyed MTV’s Remote Control as a person enjoyed The Monkees and a fan of The Brady Bunch this show really rocked.

Than as time went on I really started enjoying MTV’s Real World. Real World Los Angeles Season 2 (Dominic, Tami, Jon, Beth S., Aaron, Irene, David, Glenn, Beth A.were my favorite)! Than I caught Road Rules and that too was a great Show. Than came Real World and Road Rules Challenge and that show started off fun.

Today I still watch the Challenge even though I don’t watch any other reality show I still catch it hoping to see some past cast members of Real World LA & Road Rules and I do it’s on Paramount Plus The Challenge All Stars. They are currently on Season 3 now there starting to bring people on that are too recent.

MTV Spring Break and The Grind because I loved Real McCoy songs. Just holds memories.

On occasion I caught Beavis and Butthead just for a quick laugh.

Tom Green and the Bum Bum song is still in my head.

I also did watch some of its dating shows Singled Out Room Raiders Dismissed Next Parental Control Exposed and Undressed.

Punk’d & The Osbornes were other shows I watched on occasion and MTV’s WWE Sunday Night Heat.

As of today I only watch The Challenge on MTV and every year I wish it gets cancelled every year it keeps getting renewed.

MTV is pointless nowadays, wonder how long it would remain a channel? They still have Movie and TV Awards every year, and video music awards also every year which is still a thing.

As long as Viacom has cash from somewhere to keep it on life support, I guess it'll be around.

MTV is pure trash.... Its rreally sad,it used to be a GOOD music channel!