How is MTV still alive?

[TMC]

I've posted numerous times on here about MTV's "network decay", but I still feel inclined in light of them recently holding their biggest show of the year, the Video Music Awards. In all honesty, it seems like 80% of their programming is just reruns of Ridiculousness played over and over. And then as their other feeder shows, there's Teen Mom, Catfish, Ex On The Beach, and The Challenge.

My point here this time is wow can any network survive when all the play is the same show over and over with some new shows mixed in during prime time. To be most direct, all their lineup is literally just Teen Mom, Catfish, Jersey Shore and Ridiculousness every week with a few shows/movies sprinkled in.

But simply put, MTV is basically all reality shows now. But they all do well so go figure. Has MTV as it stands as a network today, become stripped down so lean they can just survive on that one show? Or does Viacom just keep it going to keep the brand alive? I suppose that while MTV doesn't have amazing viewership these days, it does bring in decent enough numbers, and they'll air whatever they can to keep those numbers from sinking.

And now, before you come in and say that YouTube made any need for MTV totally irrelevant (since you can find any video ever, make a playlist of videos you like and autoplay new videos), they dropped the "mostly videos" format way before YouTube was a thing. They started introducing other programs in the '90s, and just kept phasing out video blocks as the other programming brought in better ratings. As a matter of fact, they started airing MTV2 as an alternative channel focused on music in the mid-90s. But even that channel diverged from the format before YouTube was launched.

What more than likely screwed MTV over wasn't the advent of YouTube but the record industry suffering a downturn from not being properly prepared for the digital age of music. This was coupled with them increasing reality programming while at the same time, drastically reducing music based programming. And lastly, they whittled down their target demographic to a very small group.

[Hawkee]

When MTV was first launched worldwide in 1980 it's mission was and still is a network that would play music videos 24 hours a day and night and with a simple format that brought a new style of channel to television. And soon with music videos from popular artists such as Michael Jackson George Michael David Bowie Pat Benatar to rock bands like Poison Foreigner and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers MTV gave people what they wished for. But when two inventions were introduced to the world in 1986 "I bet you know what things i'm talking about" and if you guessed CDs and CD players i'll give you points for guessing but anyway when CDs hit the market MTV wanted to fit in with the cool crowd and with music artists making hip videos and introduced a whole new world of fashion MTV was still happy with the success this new image brought to them. In the 90's MTV was still keeping up with the rock videos and R&B and rap were starting to become popular gone was the rock videos and in their place was videos of artists like Janet Jackson the late Heavy D Dr. Dre Snoop Dogg R. Kelly and TLC MTV still kept hanging on and as more channels such as VH1 and BET doing music video shows MTV knew that they could still be a success. But I think with the debuts of the game shows Remote Control Lip Service and Singled Out you could tell that MTV was heading toward a new direction and other than game shows MTV had the shows Club MTV and Yo MTV Raps and Total Request Live that showcased the popular artists of the time it was a huge hit. But when The Real World began it started MTV's new image and now with the shows Teen Mom My Super Sweet 16 and others MTV said bye bye to music videos and focused on this image and with the birth of Youtube and Pandora and the invention of MP3 players and the IPod MTV knows that it was hard to keep up with the generation of today. But maybe in the future MTV will return to the formula that made them famous and popular with the world
Bestie

[Heenan Fan]

MTV is kept alive by ratings. Ratings equal viewers. Most of those viewers equal uneducated millennials who were raised by single parents with a remote control in one hand and a pipe in the other. The complete dumbing down of America over the last 30 years, which MTV has been a major part of, is also a factor. I wouldn't stop to take a leak on an MTV viewer if they were on fire.

I liked the Rock videos in the 1980's-early 1990's, but MTV screwed that up too.

[cfr1970]

The reason MTV is still alive is because people pay for cable and the money they pay for those cable bills go to support and keep alive these useless stations. If people everywhere would drop cable and just hook up a rabbit ear antenna, I predict these channels that nobody actually watches would fold like a house of cards.

[Heenan Fan]

This too^

[DadTheKing]

Originally Posted by LaBestia

When MTV was first launched worldwide in 1980 it's mission was and still is a network that would play music videos 24 hours a day and night and with a simple format that brought a new style of channel to television. And soon with music videos from popular artists such as Michael Jackson George Michael David Bowie Pat Benatar to rock bands like Poison Foreigner and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers MTV gave people what they wished for. But when two inventions were introduced to the world in 1986 "I bet you know what things i'm talking about" and if you guessed CDs and CD players i'll give you points for guessing but anyway when CDs hit the market MTV wanted to fit in with the cool crowd and with music artists making hip videos and introduced a whole new world of fashion MTV was still happy with the success this new image brought to them. In the 90's MTV was still keeping up with the rock videos and R&B and rap were starting to become popular gone was the rock videos and in their place was videos of artists like Janet Jackson the late Heavy D Dr. Dre Snoop Dogg R. Kelly and TLC MTV still kept hanging on and as more channels such as VH1 and BET doing music video shows MTV knew that they could still be a success. But I think with the debuts of the game shows Remote Control Lip Service and Singled Out you could tell that MTV was heading toward a new direction and other than game shows MTV had the shows Club MTV and Yo MTV Raps and Total Request Live that showcased the popular artists of the time it was a huge hit. But when The Real World began it started MTV's new image and now with the shows Teen Mom My Super Sweet 16 and others MTV said bye bye to music videos and focused on this image and with the birth of Youtube and Pandora and the invention of MP3 players and the IPod MTV knows that it was hard to keep up with the generation of today. But maybe in the future MTV will return to the formula that made them famous and popular with the world
Bestie

Hi, Bestie! I wish MTV would return to what made them great, but it is too late. MTV is now a zombie running on fumes. It is just a paycheck to the ones running it till it completely dies. Then they will sell the name to somebody

[storrs19]

Originally Posted by cfr1970

The reason MTV is still alive is because people pay for cable and the money they pay for those cable bills go to support and keep alive these useless stations. If people everywhere would drop cable and just hook up a rabbit ear antenna, I predict these channels that nobody actually watches would fold like a house of cards.

That’s the exact reason I dropped cable many years ago: I watched maybe 6 channels out of 300. Now I have cable internet ($15 a month) yeah, in this country you have no choice: it’s cable or the telephone company, but still. I have a Roku stick and enjoy many of the “free” channels and only pay $10 a month for some more channels that I actually watch.

[TKMetal]

The music industry will never be what it was and MTV will never be "Music Television" again.

They actually have an all music video channel called MTV Classic and it's one of the lowest rated cable channels in existence.

Something tells me CBS-Viacom will soon be "ghosting" MTV Classic.

[Impressions]

If they were serious about music, they'd show concerts, music videos, or have documentaries on music artists, but those obviously don't get any ratings; it's the trashy shows about uneducated millennials and generation y & z kids, who their core audience are. It makes absolute no sense that they still have the MTV Video Music Awards when the last time they've shown a music video was 20 years ago (I may be exaggerating here, but you know what I mean). They played MTV at my college all over TV screens and it was so nauseating even as a 20-something.

[Dude111]

MTV has turned into pure garbage!!

Along with MTV2 and VH1

[Yong Fang]

What I do is to get a HDMI cable to my TV and connect that to my IPhone and watch TV from that. Works great!

I was watching a video about ESPN and I never thought about it but ESPN has a “subscription fee”, basically the network charges the service provider money to have the network and then the service provider charges the consumer. Which to me is awful if you don’t watch ESPN but still have to pay for it through your basic “package”.

I haven’t watched MTV since Reagan was President except for Bravis and Butthead. Daria admittedly was a good show also. I think the network is geared to teenagers and I am no longer a teenager. It is also a mystery why MTV exists because most of that content you can watch online. Dunno.

[Tubehead]

the last show mtv had was teen wolf!!

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by LaBestia

When MTV was first launched worldwide in 1980 it's mission was and still is a network that would play music videos 24 hours a day and night and with a simple format that brought a new style of channel to television. And soon with music videos from popular artists such as Michael Jackson George Michael David Bowie Pat Benatar to rock bands like Poison Foreigner and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers MTV gave people what they wished for. But when two inventions were introduced to the world in 1986 "I bet you know what things i'm talking about" and if you guessed CDs and CD players i'll give you points for guessing.

MTV launched on August 1, 1981, CD's were first issued in the U.S. in 1984 with Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A". being the first released. The new format had been released earlier with ABBA's "The Visitors" (Germany 1981) and Billy Joel's "52nd Street" (Japan 1982).

[Jessica]

VH1 Classic is what gets closest to a music channel now.

[stevea]

Here's a link from an old thread, showing ratings for 2018, and that MTV gained overall viewers last year. However, MeTV is still ahead of it. MTV last year was #32 overall and #13 in 18-49.

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/12/ne...bc-1202030597/