{"id":486508,"date":"2026-01-02T06:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/486508\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T06:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:37:10","slug":"mtv-did-not-shut-down-despite-social-media-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/486508\/","title":{"rendered":"MTV Did Not Shut Down Despite Social Media Posts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tYou\u2019ve probably seen a variation of this news on social media over the past few days: MTV<\/a> officially shut down on New Year\u2019s Eve, ending their final broadcast the same way the network started: With the clip \u201cVideo Killed the Radio Star\u201d by The Buggles. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut those posts are misinformed. It\u2019s New Year\u2019s Day 2026, and MTV is still around. Granted, today the channel is playing a marathon of \u201cThe Big Bang Theory\u201d sitcom repeats, so your interpretation of \u201cMTV is still around\u201d may vary. <\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s where the confusion is coming from: On New Year\u2019s Eve, Paramount Skydance<\/a> did indeed shut down several MTV-branded music channels in the U.K. According to a source, \u201cMTV\u2019s specialist music channels in the UK will no longer operate as linear channels. The flagship MTV UK channel will continue to broadcast\u2026 Paramount is reviewing and adjusting its international Pay TV portfolio, given shifts in audience behavior towards streaming and digital platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the U.S., the existing MTV channels will continue to broadcast without change \u2014 including MTV and MTV2. MTV hasn\u2019t been \u201cMusic Television\u201d for a long time, but the network does still program some digital music channels in the U.S., including \u201cMTV Classic\u201d (playing retro music videos from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s), \u201cMTV Live\u201d (which runs current music videos, as well as other music programming from the Paramount library) and a collection of MTV-branded FAST channels (\u201cMTV Biggest Pop,\u201d \u201cMTV Spankin\u2019 New,\u201d \u201cYo! MTV\u201d and \u201cMTV Flow Latino\u201d), which play contemporary music videos on Pluto TV. <\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, fans of MTV\u2019s golden 1980s, 1990s and 2000s era still look nostalgically at when the flagship network really was about music. In those days, MTV\u2019s programming consisted of music videos and music-oriented series like \u201cHeadbanger\u2019s Ball,\u201d \u201c120 Minutes\u201d and \u201cYo! MTV Raps.\u201d Later, \u201cTRL\u201d was an afternoon staple for an entire generation of kids. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut in recent years, MTV has focused on reality programming \u2014 which currently includes \u201cThe Challenge\u201d and \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race.\u201d The network has also been criticized for its over-reliance on series like \u201cRidiculousness,\u201d which often takes up the lion\u2019s share of its programming. (As Variety wrote in 2020<\/a>, at one point \u201cRidiculousness\u201d took up\u00a0113 of 168 total hours on MTV \u2014 67.3% of its entire schedule.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that\u2019s probably why, while inaccurate, this \u201cnews\u201d that MTV is shutting down has resonated across social media \u2014 especially among Gen Xers and Millennials. They still remember that music on MTV came more than just once a year on the VMAs. And they\u2019ve also seen the recent reports of how cutbacks have eliminated the last vestiges of MTV as we know it: In 2023, the remaining shell of a once-vibrant MTV News division was shut down<\/a>, and then last year the legacy MTV News website went dark<\/a>, and its archives were scrubbed from the internet. <\/p>\n

\n\tThen there was the sense in 2025 that we\u2019ve hit the tipping point <\/a>when it comes to the decline in basic cable, as companies like NBCU look to shed those once-valuable assets. When Skydance acquired Paramount and started making drastic cuts, its cable networks were hit especially hard: MTV shed most of its remaining comms and talent teams<\/a>, including top remaining music programming and talent execs. The idea that even a major network like MTV might shut down no longer seems so far-fetched.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Variety\u2018s 2025 tally of the most-watched linear networks in primetime<\/a>, MTV rated No. 49 \u2014 with an average of 189,000 viewers. In adults 18-49, MTV ranked No. 25. Compare that to 10 years ago: In 2015, MTV ranked No. 36 with 606,000 viewers.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo yes, the MTV as we knew it disappeared a long time ago. But MTV as a channel still exists. For now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You\u2019ve probably seen a variation of this news on social media over the past few days: MTV officially…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":486509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,18078,77684,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-486508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-mtv","10":"tag-paramount-skydance","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115824128661783729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}