The end of an era
The MTV logo in the 1980s
It’s the end of an era. MTV is closing its music video channels in the UK after 38 years.
The five channels MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and MTV Live will all cease broadcasting on Thursday 31st December 2025, with the iconic brand’s one remaining channel, MTV HD, remaining to focus on reality TV shows like Dating Naked UK, Teen Mom UK and Geordie Shore.
MTV, the planet’s first 24-hour music broadcaster, launched in the United States on 1st August 1981, and the very first video aired was ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles.
MTV founder Bob Pittman in 1983
MTV celebrated rock music from the off, playing videos by the likes of The Who, REO Speedwagon, Styx, The Cars, Robert Plant, Fleetwood Mac, Rainbow and David Bowie on its first day.
Iron Maiden’s ‘Iron Maiden’ was the 16th video of the day, and the band have the prestigious honour of being the very first heavy metal act to be played on MTV.
The channel’s continental incarnation, MTV Europe, followed in the hugely successful footsteps of the US channel in 1987, with a separate UK version kicking off with the Lightning Seeds ft. David Baddiel and Frank Skinner’s ‘Three Lions’ in 1997.
During its 80s and 90s heyday, tens of millions of viewers across the globe consumed rolling music videos, and record labels duly pumped increasingly gargantuan budgets into making eye-catching song promos.
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Michael Jackson’s multi-million-dollar blockbuster ‘Thriller’ was the most-played of the 80s, followed by Peter Gabriel’s stop motion classic ‘Sledgehammer’, and Dire Straits’ ‘Money for Nothing’, which famously name-checks MTV.
Rock acts who enjoyed heavy rotation on MTV in those halcyon days included Whitesnake, Twisted Sister, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Genesis, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Bon Jovi to name but a few.
It also made stars out of the various VJs (video jockeys), while the gloriously vulgar teenage slackers Beavis and Butt-Head became household names with their hilarious blistering critiques of music videos.
MTV stars Tawny Kitaen and David Coverdale in 1987
With the launch of YouTube and social media in the noughties, the public’s video-consuming habits changed and fewer people tuned into MTV for their music video fix.
The main MTV UK channel ditched music videos altogether in 2011, leaving its spin-off channels to broadcast videos.