As MTV burns, what can we glean from the ashes of music television?
Opinion
The decision by Paramount Global to close all its MTV channels by the end of the year is culturally seismic, but what lessons should the UK’s public service broadcasters take from the demise of music television?
There’s glacial change, as in icebergs retreating by a few inches a year, although that may be too optimistic a measure for the current state of climate change.
Then, in the media, there are the sorts of changes we all know are happening, such as the drift away from traditional broadcasters towards online streaming giants. We know it’s happening, but at any one moment, things can still appear relatively normal, at least for now.
Then, apparently out of the blue, there is the cataclysmic event that absolutely proves that everything is very far from normal.
The decision by Paramount Global to close all its MTV television channels by the end of this year, after 44 years, is one such event.
What? MTV, the pioneer of an entire industry, the music video business. It seemed to sweep all before it and was seen as the undertaker of the music radio business; it is gone forever.
How could such a thing have happened?
The cultural compass for youth
And the irony of ironies, those with long memories will recall that the first video the original MTV channel in America played was by The Buggles – ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’.
How could steam radio compete with all those musical stars and expensively choreographed videos? It appeared to be an abrupt moment of change between silent movies and the talkies.
Except, we now know that technological change is neither even nor always inevitable. The ‘Radio Stars’ may not have emerged victorious. Still, they have indeed survived, and it is the music channels that have bitten the dust, as the modern equivalent of music channels is increasingly consumed on YouTube, TikTok, and Spotify.
For those of us who were around at the beginning when MTV arrived in Europe in 1987 with the Dire Straits’ ‘Money For Nothing’ track, its demise is still a difficult concept to process.
As David Uniyime Nkanta wrote in his obituary for the lost MTV channels: “For years, it was the cultural compass for youth, a place where music wasn’t just heard but seen, styled, lived.”
Highlights included Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1983 and the 16-hour broadcast of the Live Aid concert two years later.
In the corporate sense, it was a powerhouse run internationally from London by legendary figures such as Bill Roedy. He combined public interest issues, including fighting for free expression and combating AIDS, with generating substantial profits.
At the same time, he was happy to strut his stuff all over the world at the MTV Video Music Awards.
He was the most unusual of rock impresarios, a graduate of West Point who had served on the front lines of combat in Vietnam and commanded nuclear missile bases as part of NATO. Later, his new weapon, MTV, would play a key role in helping to bring down the Cold War walls.
For its ultimate owner, Paramount Global, it’s purely a corporate decision, and the loss of any trace of public interest or protecting a space for developing new artists is just collateral damage.
Audiences for traditional channels are down, costs can be cut, and profits increased. The company is concentrating on streaming channels for the future, which is the way technology and eyeballs are heading.
What will remain and what lessons can be learned?
When the lights go out on the MTV television music channels on New Year’s Eve, what will be left of a once great television music empire: an icon even?
MTV HD in the US will survive, but it will be devoted mainly to reality shows and drama aimed at the younger demographic rather than music. MTV will retain a social media presence, and awards ceremonies are usually lucrative. But that will be that.
The fate of MTV suggests that a media age, from gestation through stardom to death, amounts to little more than 44 years. If anything, that may seem like a good innings in future.
The MTV cull may demonstrate the ruthlessness of American media executives. It is also a stark warning of the way the wind is blowing for those seeking to protect as much as possible of the gentler public service broadcasting traditions of the UK and Europe.
Corporate cooperation is back
Just as well then that, after the fiasco of the Competition Commission blocking cooperation between Britain’s broadcasters in the shape of Project Kangaroo in 2009, such corporate cooperation is now not only possible but encouraged.
Freely – strange name, but never mind, everything can’t be perfect- is underway as ‘Everyone TV’, a joint venture involving the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
The aim is to make free TV over broadband more accessible, which is obviously a step in the right direction. However, the fact that it currently works mainly by being built into new smart TVs seems like a limiting factor in the short term.
Freely to appear on streaming puck and IP-only device for first time
Still, work must be done towards the eventual day, probably still a long way off, when transmitting from hilltops becomes a thing of the past.
The plans for a unified TV advertising marketplace from next year are obviously a second step in the right direction.
The lesson from MTV is loud and clear: all of the UK’s public service broadcasters, whether commercial or licence-fee funded, must cooperate to the maximum degree possible if they are to survive in the face of relentless international competition.
Co-operating almost everywhere to reduce costs while competing vigorously in the marketplace of programme ideas has to be the mantra from now on.
Maximum cooperation from the Government is also part of the path towards the future.
As the chief executives of the UK’s pubic service broadcasters warned last month, the risk they face “is that global online platforms, rather than distinctly British broadcasters, will come to dominate our cultural landscape.”
They want action to ensure their channels stand out on devices and platforms where audiences spend their time, and support for trusted, independent journalism to thrive, particularly on platforms that young people use.
There should be a managed move to internet-delivered television and, with Kangaroo in mind, the removal of unnecessary barriers to PSBs forming strategic partnerships.
It means, according to the broadcasting leaders, “regulating for growth and innovation, reflecting the global nature of today’s media markets.”
The demise of MTV television channels on New Year’s Eve should stand as a stark reminder that the need for such changes is both necessary and urgent.
Raymond Snoddy is a media consultant, national newspaper columnist and former presenter of NewsWatch on BBC News. He writes for The Media Leader on Wednesdays — bookmark his column here.