
The MTV Problem with Product Managment - edent
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/11/the-mtv-problem-with-product-managment/
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swang
The joke/trope about MTV not playing any music was alive and well when I
finally got MTV around '98 or so when I was in high school. TRL was the show
that was on when I got home from school. I remember when Eminem first was
shown as a "hot" new video, then jumped to #1 on TRL. That's how influential
the show was with their base (which was me I guess, sorta).

At first they would play a large chunk of the videos before cutting out, then
as it kept getting more and more popular, less and less of the actual videos
would play.

For example, they started inserting live "fans" talking about the video (e.g.
I REQUESTED LIMP BIZKIT BECAUSE THEY ROCK _TEEN SCREAM_ ) which cut out the
sound from the music video.

Then they started bringing in celebrities to hawk their latest album or movie,
they'd spend about 20 seconds on the video, then cut to the celebrity for
their reaction and then a question about their new video or new album or new
product.

The producers of the show would also lick their lips whenever something
"crazy" happened so they could repeat that clip over and over again in 5
different "music" clip shows and/or discuss it during the MTV MUSIC AWARDS.
Example: Mariah Carey had her infamous breakdown on TRL and all they just
played that clip of her non-stop. "MTV NEWS REPORTS MARIAH CAREY BREAKDOWN!
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!", "TOP 5 CELEBRITY MELTDOWNS That Happened on MTV"

Basically MTV the channel became a, "hey remember when this happened on MTV?"
show. Less and less of their content was being driven by music videos since
music videos make $0. Bringing in celebrities, having celebrities, reality
shows that cost almost nothing to make (I'm surprised they didn't figure this
out right off the bat with Real World). That's where the real money laid.

------
jasode
_> MTV could have grown with the teenagers for the 1990s and now be a music
channel for people in their 40s._

The "could have grown" isn't supported by evidence. The author appears to be
unaware of economic realities:

    
    
      1) record labels wanted MTV to start pay royalties instead of historically getting music videos for free
    
      2) youtube didn't exist in 1981-2005 [1]
    
      3) music's general decline audience attention (video games, web surfing, etc) and discretionary spending ($$$ peaked in 1999)
    

[1] Why Doesn't MTV Play Music Videos Anymore?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ysyZF-
DZFY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ysyZF-DZFY)

------
wmt
Globally the demise of MTV was even more obvious. During the music videos +
beavis & butt-head years there globally was only one channel, which was
awesome as you knew that the same thing was being watched by all other teens
watching it around the world. Watching it felt like tuning in to a truly
global teen culture, which resonated perfectly with the coming of the Internet
that allowed you to communicate effortlessly with people around the world.

Then in the late 90s they had the bright idea to start splitting it off into
smaller and smaller channels until all you had was a "your small local part of
the world"-version of MTV, and the magic was gone.

------
pnt12
> The move resulted in an increase in the channel's audience share of nearly
> 150%.

Not so much of a problem, it seems.

MTV also went through a time where we really changed the way we listened to
music. With Youtube, Spotify and all the other similar services, anyone can
watch the videos or listen to the music they want to. Their suggestions/radios
are also very good at finding related music, so they have a become a good
source to find new music.

All that makes the old MTV obsolete, IMO. Although you could say the same
about all TV channels, even though they don't seem to be doing too bad.

