MTV Shuts Down International Music Channels After 44 Years

Paramount Skydance will close MTV's international music broadcasting by the end of December, with the network unable to keep up with online streaming and social media. Company sources told AFP that MTV Music, MTV Hits, and its 80s and 90s music shows will close in the UK and other European countries within months, Yahoo Entertainment reports.

France, Germany, Poland, Australia, and Brazil will see shutdowns at year's end, various media reports say. The flagship MTV HD channel will stay available in the UK, though programming will shift toward entertainment instead of music.

The network launched in 1981. Its impact was "seismic" during its heyday, bringing famous and up-and-coming artists into the homes of music fans worldwide, said Kirsty Fairclough to AFP, per Yahoo Entertainment. She's a professor of screen studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Conditions that made the network "revolutionary" simply "don't exist anymore", Fairclough told AFP. Viewers now expect "immediacy" and "interactivity" that sitting in front of the television to watch rolling music videos cannot provide, she added.

British audience researcher Barb found MTV Music reached around 1.3 million UK households in July 2025. Compare that to 2001 — back then, Barb figures showed MTV UK and Ireland's package of music channels had reached over 10 million homes.

"Initially MTV Europe wasn't just about making the most amount of money... that sense of experimentation made the channel very exciting," Angel said, per Yahoo Entertainment.

Paramount has taken several cost-cutting measures since its merger with Skydance this year. Last month, the company announced 1,000 job cuts. It's also been looking at its other cable television offerings.

James Hyman, director and producer for Europe's 1990s dance music shows, lamented to AFP (per Yahoo Entertainment): "The 'M' stood for music, and that's gone."