It’s the end of an era as MTV has announced that it is closing its music video channels in the UK after 38 years.
The announcement from Music Television (MTV) is that the channels MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and MTV Live will all cease broadcasting on Thursday 31st December 2025, with the iconic brand’s one remaining channel, MTV HD, remaining to focus on reality TV shows like Dating Naked UK, Teen Mom UK and Geordie Shore.
I first saw MTV back in 1986, when Cablelink in Waterford, Ireland where I’m from, gave us our first satellite channels ; Sky One, Sky News, Sky Movies, MTV and Eurosport were amongst the new channels. Originally we only have RTE1, RTE2, BBC1, BBC2, ITV and S4C which later becane Channel 4 for us.
The first video I remember seeing on MTV was Take My Breath Away by Berlin, from the movie Top Gun which was released that year. It was all very exciting.
MTV, the planet’s first 24-hour music broadcaster, first launched in the United States on Saturday 1st August 1981, and the very first video aired was ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles. On that first day MTV also played videos by The Who, REO Speedwagon, Styx, The Cars, Robert Plant, Fleetwood Mac, Rainbow and David Bowie. There were some great shows on the original MTV including a programme which played 3 songs by one artist, I’m sure I have some of those Queen triple-plays on VHS) and I also remember Headbangers Ball. Speaking of Headbangers, Iron Maiden’s ‘Iron Maiden’ was the 16th video of the first day of MTV Broadcasting, and the band have the prestigious honour of being the very first heavy metal act to be played on MTV.
The channel’s continental incarnation, MTV Europe, followed in the hugely successful footsteps of the US channel in 1987, with a separate UK version starting in 1997.
During its 80s and 90s heyday, tens of millions of viewers across the globe consumed rolling music videos, and record labels duly pumped increasingly gargantuan budgets into making eye-catching song promos.
The Big Shift: When the Internet Changed the Tune
But as we all know, things changed. When the “noughties” (the 2000’s) rolled around, so did YouTube and social media.
Suddenly, we didn’t have to wait to see our favourite video. We could just search for it on our computers (and later, our phones). Our viewing habits changed forever, and fewer people tuned into the main MTV channel for their music fix.
It was the end of an era. By 2011, the main MTV UK channel actually ditched music videos completely, moving them over to its spin-off channels.
It’s wild to think about! While it’s amazing to have every music video ever made at our fingertips, there was something truly special about the shared experience of watching it all unfold together on one channel, wasn’t there?
What’s your all-time favourite MTV memory? Let me know in the comments!
