MTV’s Music Channels Go Dark Today

Breaking: MTV is turning off the music. I can confirm the network is shutting down its remaining music channels worldwide. The last day on air is December 31, 2025. The wind down starts today, beginning in the UK and Ireland, then moving across Europe and beyond. Only the flagship MTV HD will remain, focused on reality TV.

What is going dark

Here are the channels MTV is closing as part of this global move:

• MTV Music
• MTV 80s
• MTV 90s
• Club MTV
• MTV Live

The flagship MTV HD stays on air, now built around reality franchises, doc soaps, and competition formats. This is not a pause. This is a pivot. The shutdown stretches from the UK and Ireland to markets that include Australia, Poland, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Brazil. Local feeds will sign off as their schedules end.

Why MTV is making this call

This change ties directly to a bigger shakeup at Paramount Global. The company is cutting costs and focusing on streaming after its merger with Skydance. Paramount+ and Pluto TV get top billing now. Music videos, which once held the center, no longer drive linear TV ratings. Viewers already watch videos on YouTube. They discover clips on TikTok. They live inside Spotify playlists. The old model cannot keep up with that pace or those habits.

Earlier this year, MTV also canceled Ridiculousness after 46 seasons. Reruns continue into 2026, and the library remains on Paramount+. That move hinted at a deeper reset. Today confirms it.

Celebrity shock, fan feelings, and a final curtain

MTV made artists. It turned big songs into national events. From Unplugged to TRL to the VMAs, the brand crowned moments and built icons. The end of the music channels lands with real weight. Artists who grew up on MTV now mentor fans who grew up on phones. They know the ground has shifted.

Fans spent the morning swapping favorite countdown memories and lobby TV marathons. Some planned living room watch parties to catch the last idents and title cards. Others made playlists to mirror the final hours. The feeling is simple. A door that shaped youth culture is closing.

I am hearing from producers who worked those rooms. They remember the scramble of premiere days. They recall phones melting when a video dropped. Those memories live on. The platform that held them does not.

What MTV becomes next

MTV HD will function as a reality hub. Expect more unscripted formats, quick-turn doc series, and crossovers with Paramount+. The brand is chasing shows that move fast and travel well. That means fewer traditional blocks. It means more binge-ready arcs. It also means MTV’s famous mix of music, fashion, and attitude must find new lanes.

This is where the audience already lives. Music videos never died. They moved. Artists premiere on their own channels. Directors post cuts and behind the scenes. Fans remix, duet, and stitch. The energy is still there. It just flows through different pipes.

The cultural handoff

Let’s say the quiet part. MTV began in 1981 with a video about the future. That future arrived. The Buggles warned radio. Streaming finished TV’s music era too. What we lose today is not the art form. We lose a shared room where a generation watched together. We lose the daily habit of tuning in to see what the culture chose next.

What we gain is control. Fans program their own “MTV” every day, on demand, clip by clip. It is freer and faster. It is also lonelier. The next evolution for MTV, and for music video culture, will be how to rebuild a shared moment inside this scattered world.

The bottom line

This is an end, and it is also a restart. The linear music channels sign off for good by December 31, 2025. The MTV name lives on in reality TV and streaming. The music video, born on television, now breathes best on phones. Pull up your favorite clip tonight. Hit play. And remember the thrill of waiting for it to start.