MTV, once known as a groundbreaking global programme, is now withdrawing all of its music from across the world – except in the US.

The advancement of streaming technology seemingly played a large part in the decision.

Founder and chief executive of Irish independent film and TV company ShinAwil Larry Bass said, “there’s been monumental changes” in the TV and streaming industry recently, “and this is just the next phase of it”.

“Those of us old enough to remember the start of MTV, it was like a revolution,” he told The Anton Savage Show.

“Suddenly, the youth of the world were able to see content they wanted to watch – it was mainly young people who wanted to watch music television.

“But the way music television operates today, most young people wouldn’t be watching music channels that are created by people who don’t particularly like their type of music.

“People now want to watch music; watch it curated through algorithms on things like Spotify and YouTube.”

A man looks at his iPhone which displays the Spotify logo in October 2018. Picture by: M4OS Photos / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Bass said that as a result of “consolidation that’s going on in the industry”, many broadcast programmes have been scaled back.

“Viacom, who own MTV have now been bought up by Paramount CBS,” he said.

“CBS Paramount have now just merged with Warner Discovery, Warner Brothers, who had previously bought the Discovery and HBO networks.

“So, it’s all consolidating into one, and obviously, any consolidation, any industry, once things consolidate, you start looking at where the economics of scale can kick in.”

'Peak TV'

According to Mr Bass, for these reasons, MTV’s recent move is not surprising.

“I think it’s just a constant way technology changes and consumer’s habits change,” he said.

“That’s the way you have to go, you have to be just following where the audience is.”

Mr Bass said that the phase of “peak TV” probably ended a few years ago.

Main image: MTV astronauts space photography performance in Times Square Manhattan New York USA. Image: Sergi Reboredo. 14 April 2021