Why does mtv not play music anymore

But MTV in particular has struggled as its target Millennial audience gravitates to other platforms. MTV ended averaging , adults in primetime, down from , the previous year. Overall, MTV averaged , viewers in vs. MTV still plays music videos for insomniacs usually from 1 a. But as MTV mostly abandoned its music roots and expanded into scripted programming, network execs have had to contend with snarky critics mostly of the Gen X variety bitter that the MTV of their youth had disappeared.

Indeed, the days of Martha Quinn and Downtown Julie Brown introducing the latest Janet Jackson jam are long gone—and never coming back. You want to see a music video? Hit up YouTube. But that era of MTV at least attracted a broader audience — kids and teens who were attracted to the rebellious nature of the programming, and adults interested in the music and lifestyle fare.

More recently, MTV has been hyper-focused on female teens, a demo already saturated by rivals like Freeform and distracted by digital and online platforms. To reverse its ratings tumble, MTV will have to target a wider tent — and not solely rely on its fickle core. The CW engineered a ratings rebirth by similarly expanding its audience. MTV has come far since its founding in , and also swung far from its original acronym: Music Television.

A network that used to be iconically countercultural has become ironically mainstream. A quick perusal of MTV. But has MTV merely evolved with the times? Are they still trying to be cool and represent "the youths"? Or, are they just dogfighting for ratings? What happened to all the music videos? Financially, even during the best of times in the mid's, MTV was more or less staying afloat. That is, until it started introducing game shows and diversifying its network even its first game show, "Remote Control", was hugely popular in comparison to music videos.