MTV’s international music channels are set to shut down by the end of the year, marking the final chapter for a network once credited with reshaping global pop culture.
MTV International Music Channels To Shut Down By Year End
MTV Music, MTV Hits and its 80s and 90s music blocks will cease broadcasting in the UK and several European countries in the coming months, Paramount sources confirmed to AFP. Reports indicate that the shutdown will also take effect in France, Germany, Poland, Australia and Brazil.
The closures have been described as “the end of an era” by disappointed fans and former MTV video jockeys — the VJs who became iconic faces of the brand during its peak. But according to industry experts, MTV’s traditional model can no longer survive the demands of today’s digital-first audiences.
MTV first launched in 1981, ushering in a new age of music and television by famously playing “Video Killed the Radio Star” as its debut video. More than forty years on, the channel — now owned by US media giant Paramount Skydance — has struggled to keep pace with online streaming platforms and the powerful pull of social media.
Kirsty Fairclough, professor of screen studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, said the conditions that once made MTV “revolutionary” simply “don’t exist anymore”. Digital platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have, she explained, “completely refigured how we engage with music and images”. Viewers now expect “immediacy” and “interactivity”, she added, something traditional TV music channels cannot match.
James Hyman, who directed and produced MTV Europe’s dance music shows during the 1990s, remembers the network’s golden era vividly. “It was so exciting, because that’s mainly all people had,” Hyman told AFP.
Hyman was a key figure behind Party Zone — the influential programme that championed club culture and introduced audiences to emerging techno, house and trance music — working alongside well-known MTV VJ Simone Angel.
But by the early 2000s, the network and its regional branches had shifted away from music-centred programming and towards reality television. “I was heartbroken when it started to split up into different regions. To me that was like the beginning of the end,” Dutch presenter Angel told AFP.
In the UK, the impact of MTV’s decline has been stark. Audience research from Barb shows MTV Music reached around 1.3 million households in July 2025. In 2001, MTV UK and Ireland’s package of music channels reached over 10 million homes.
Angel believes the downturn can largely be traced back to MTV’s move away from bold, original programming that had helped unknown artists break through. “Initially MTV Europe wasn’t just about making the most amount of money… that sense of experimentation made the channel very exciting,” she said.
Paramount’s broader restructuring efforts have accelerated the closures. Since merging with Skydance earlier this year, the company has announced thousands of job cuts and begun reassessing its cable television portfolio.
Some MTV-branded music channels will remain in the United States, and the flagship MTV HD channel will continue to air in the UK — though its focus will be on entertainment rather than music. “The ‘M’ stood for music, and that’s gone,” Hyman lamented. He still keeps dozens of Party Zone tapes preserved on VHS, stored carefully at his home in London.
There, the tapes continue to spin in his old VHS player, displaying grainy footage from the 1990s: intimate conversations with The Prodigy and Aphex Twin, offbeat music videos, and a parade of unforgettable hairstyles.
When MTV Was a Cultural Phenomenon
Moments such as Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” premiere and Madonna’s provocative “Like a Virgin” performance at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 became cultural touchstones for generations.
“It definitely marks the end of an era in how music is experienced, both visually and culturally, because MTV really fundamentally reshaped popular music,” she said.
“MTV was so powerful it defined youth culture,” Hyman recalled, noting how the channel influenced fashion, film and music trends across Britain and Europe.
Since news of the shutdown broke, both Hyman and Angel have urged Paramount to release the vast archive of MTV Europe footage to the public, insisting there remains strong interest in the network’s cultural heritage. “To me it almost feels like MTV has been on life support for such a long time,” said Angel.
