Is MTV still around?

Remember in the 80’s when MTV’s local cable channel was 112? I think 110 was that cartoon channel with the goofy round characters with beady eyes. Anyway. MTV didn’t exactly die on New Years, but Music TV did take a hit, creating a vacuum in Ireland and the UK.

On New Year’s Eve 2025, a story started spreading fast: “MTV ended.” People posted like they were attending a cultural funeral, as if the channel that taught a generation to watch music had finally switched off the lights for good.

The reality is more specific, and in some ways more telling.

MTV’s flagship channel did not shut down in the United States. Multiple fact-checks and industry reports clarified that the U.S. MTV channel remains on-air, and that the viral “shutdown” narrative was driven by confusing headlines, social posts, and a genuine sense of nostalgia colliding with real corporate changes. 

But here’s what did happen: several MTV-branded, music-only channels in certain international markets ceased broadcasting at the end of 2025. Mainly the United Kingdom and Ireland. These were MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, among others.

That was enough to make it feel like a symbolic ending—because to many viewers, those music channels were the last remaining “pure” version of what MTV used to represent. 

So while the obituary for MTV was exaggerated, the emotion behind it wasn’t imaginary. People weren’t mourning a single cable channel. They were mourning the idea of a network that treated music discovery as prime-time culture.

And that’s where the timing gets interesting.

Out goes the relic, in comes the new.

That New Year’s rumor effectively acted like a flare in the sky: a reminder that music-centered TV is no longer a guaranteed fixture in mainstream programming. Even Variety noted that MTV is still around, but it is far from the music video engine people remember. 

So, culturally, the question became: If MTV isn’t the home for music discovery anymore, what is? On our end, let’s start small.

Enter DMV TV… Direct Music & Videos. Or aka DC, Maryland, Virginia Television. We cherry pick the two.

DMV TV: Streaming an identity of a Region. A Network of Discovery

DMV TV is a free publisher distributor with a showcase platform for music videos, shows, short films and more tied to the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region.

If you want the cleanest way to describe why DMV TV feels like it arrived at such a pivotal moment, it’s this:

MTV didn’t become iconic merely because it played music videos. It became iconic because it made discovery feel cultural—like you were tapping into what mattered right now.

DMV TV is aiming for a similar effect, but with an updated playbook:

• streaming instead of cable
• regional identity instead of monoculture,
• and a network that behaves as a multi-platform like YouTube (we can never compete with that giant tho)

You see back then MTV was built for a world where everyone watched the same screen at the same time, and talked about what happened that weekend on Monday morning. We had an entire 1 week build up for a new Michael Jackson video airing on Fox Thursday night after the Simpsons. With teaser trailers, behind the scenes, interviews all building up….for a music video….

DMV TV is now in a world where attention is fragmented, platforms matter, and discovery is algorithmic unless a curator steps in. A Human curator at that.

DMV TV is essentially saying: we will curate the region’s culture the way MTV once curated music—just in the formats people actually use in 2026.

Why the Timing Feels “Just Right”

The phrase “MTV ended” spread because it felt plausible. Not because MTV literally vanished, but because music television has been steadily unbundled and displaced—first by YouTube, then by streaming, then by short-form feeds.

So when international MTV music channels really did go dark at the end of 2025 (in some markets), the internet treated it like the final symbolic confirmation: the old era is done. 

In that moment, a network like DMV TV doesn’t need to claim it “replaced” MTV. It only needs to do one thing: show up with the thing people suddenly realized they miss—music-centered programming that feels curated, not endless.

And DMV TV’s positioning makes it especially keen. It isn’t trying to be “everything for everyone.” We are rooted in a scene, that has a quiet but powerful archive of historic music of every genre. But now we also have an original generation of talented musicians and film makers, whose videos get tossed into the algorithmic YouTube bin. We look for the best, and help create for the best, that is, if they need our help.

That combination—community + curation + streaming- is exactly what the post-MTV conversation is about.

MTV Sold out

We can admit the music-TV era has been fading for years, and what made that possible, seemingly is that we stopped caring about MTV, after MTV stopped showing music videos. That first season of The Real World was great tbh. It took a slow and thinning proclamation, but MTV is still around. But at what cost? Look at it now. It isn’t “half the man it used to be” as Scott Weiland would once say.

MTV has become too mainstream. Its edginess is entirely based on sexuality, and demonic symbolisms now, and not on youthful sarcasm, wittiness, humor, charm, musical differences and adult parodies.

Also it was owned by VIACOM, now trafficked to Paramount, whose CEO probably gave it to a BlackRock child sacrifice survivor or something, living in Greenland looking for rare minerals. But the only thing we can say is.

DMV TV is independently owned and none owed. And who you don’t owe, won’t hurt you.

In a world drowning in content, the next “MTV moment” won’t come from a channel number.

It will come from whoever makes music discovery feel like an event again.

Thanks for reading, we also have NYC TV, MIAMI TV AND LA TV on Roku, exploring the same localized independent streaming media theme. Please consider being a sponsor.

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