MTV Goes Silent: Streaming Tech Ends 44-Year Era of Music TV; Officially Shuts Down on 31 December 2025

Across the globe, MTV, considered as a cultural institution in music, defined pop culture. Now, over four decades later, MTV has officially shut down its dedicated music channels. This marks the end of an era for television and music. MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, MTV Live and Club MTV went off the air in the United Kingdom, as well as in Europe, Brazil, France, Poland, Australia, and others on 31 December 2025.

MTV's initial move was making a public announcement early in October last year, as shared by Rolling Stone. In its initial statement of going dark, MTV announced that only MTV HD will stay on air.

In an interview with People, Daisy Fuentes, former MTV DJ said, 'While it's a bit sad, it's been a bit sad for a while. I think MTV had its time and history that time will never repeat, and it's time to change,' indicating that viewership has been steadily declining for a while, pushing the network to finally decide to close its doors.

She went on to say, 'We all change. We have to evolve. And I hope that there's another version of them, just like there's another version of us, us who were part of that we're no longer the same. Why should we expect them to be? The world has changed so much.'

Simone Angel, also a former MTV VJ also told BBC she was extremely sad and in disbelief with her heart broken by the news, but also said 'it's been a long time coming.'

MTV & Streaming Tech

Launched in the United States in 1981, MTV introduced VJs or video jockeys presenting pop music videos. Among the several defining milestones that can be attributed to the music video channel were 1985's Live Aid concerts, a 16-hour broadcast that also marked the birth of MTV Video Music Awards, per BBC.

MTV's expansion in Europe came in 1987, after which the UK got its standalone channel (1997). Other notable names MTV can be credited for are Emma Willis and Zane Lowe. Simone Angel described it as, 'MTV Europe was really the forerunner to the internet. We were the most widespread TV channel in the world at that point. We had between 100 and 150 million viewers.'

MTV's flagship channels are reported to continue to broadcast reality programs in the UK and in some other parts of the world — a lot different than the music videos they used to air. In September of last year, amid an $8 billion merger with Paramount, Skydance Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Ellison said MTV was 'in bad shape', and challenged former MTV executives to reinvent the music channel per a Wall Street Journal report.

Streaming services played a central role in MTV shutting down after several decades of being an institution. Whereas viewers relied on MTV for scheduled broadcasts of their favourite shows and music videos, streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and most recently TikTok, provided listeners with instant access to music which they could watch and replay anytime.

MTV's first ever video played, 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by the Buggles, was also the last.

Media consumption has surely evolved since MTV's reign in the 80's and 90's, and with that came advertisers' interest in television programming. As a result, MTV was not killed overnight by streaming tech. MTV's traditional model simply became obsolete with online media consumption taking the stage.