The MTV You Remember Is Now Officially Gone After 44 Years
- - The MTV You Remember Is Now Officially Gone After 44 Years
Jeff LuceDecember 28, 2025 at 3:09 AM
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Photo by Jan Butchofsky on Getty Images
As MTV, Music Television, told the world in the opening minutes of its first broadcast, video killed the radio star. And 44 years later, YouTube, TikTok, and shifting tastes have finally killed the iconic video star-maker.
While the MTV brand isn’t disappearing entirely, a defining piece of it is. By the end of the year, MTV’s remaining 24-hour music channels will shut down globally across multiple regions, closing a chapter that’s been open since the early days of cable television.
The shutdown affects MTV’s dedicated music channels, although the main MTV network will continue airing reality and pop culture programming. In the U.K. and parts of Europe, channels like MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and MTV Live are being removed from Sky and Virgin Media lineups. In the U.S., remaining music-only MTV feeds carried by regional cable providers are also slated to go dark as contracts expire. It’s a broad pullback, not a single switch flip, but the result is the same.
There’s a lot of history wrapped up in this industry move. For decades, these channels were the closest thing music fans had to a shared living room. People waited for new video drops from their favorite artists. In its heyday, a video on MTV could make or break a band.
Related: How an MTV Exec Ended Up Naked in a Sauna With Two Rock Icons
Back in the ’80s and ’90s, MTV’s VJs were just as recognizable as the artists they introduced. Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, J.J. Jackson, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn became familiar faces, speaking directly to viewers. Later came Kurt Loder with his steady delivery of music news, Tabitha Soren’s reports, and Carson Daly anchoring the frenzy of Total Request Live. Shows like 120 Minutes, Yo! MTV Raps, Headbangers Ball, and TRL helped shape music culture, pulling alternative rock, hip-hop and metal into the mainstream in real time.
VJ Neil Coleweighed in on the shutdown. 'The 38 months I worked full-time as an MTV presenter,' he wrote, 'was the best possible way to learn and develop live broadcast skills which I still utilize over twenty years later. And throughout - the main focus was always MUSIC.'
The business reasoning is straightforward. Younger audiences watch music through YouTube, TikTok and streaming platforms, where videos are on demand and endlessly shareable. Paramount Global’s focus has shifted there, making linear music channels harder to justify.
Even if the screens go dark, MTV’s music era shaped how artists broke through and how fans connected. I vividly remember recording videos off of MTV on (get this) VHS tapes, just so I could see every last detail. That influence doesn’t vanish. It just stops playing automatically at 2 a.m., when you needed it most.
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This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 28, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
