MTV's music video channels sign off after 44 years
After more than four decades on the airwaves, MTV have closed down their remaining dedicated music video channels, ending with the Buggles’ Video Killed The Radio Star.
As of January 1, Paramount Global shut down MTV’s 24-hour music channels like MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live in regions including the UK, Ireland, France, Poland, Australia, and Brazil.
MTV’s music channel played music videos on a 24-hour loop and was behind landmark events like the world premiere of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and a 16-hour broadcast of Live Aid in 1985. The channel also launched the MTV Video Music Awards.
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As a sign-off, the music channel played the 1979 hit Video Killed The Radio Star, a symbolic choice at it was the first video that MTV aired when it launched in the US in 1981.
After becoming a music tastemaker in the US, MTV later expanded to Australia in 1987, airing for six years as a music video show hosted by Richard Wilkins.
MTV was later reintroduced in Australia as a music video channel on Optus Television before being added to Austar and Foxtel.
with AAP
