MTV paper final Tv channel research project PDF

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Research and development on MTV TV channel and how it has maintained relevance in an age of streaming services, by being owned by companies that care about viewer rates...

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Dannhauser 1 Josh Dannhauser Lauren Wilks Com 351 30/03/2021 The Golden Age of MTV is over MTV was a channel that dominated and ruled a point in our lives, it cultivated not just what and how we listen to music but the way our conversations were shaped around the channel. It gave the world many of the genres and artist that the world would not be the same without, MTV introduced us to many of the artists that defined who we are and how it impacted our adolescents, it made us experience other cultures and subcultures of music, creating a diverse and educational channel through the musical notes of a song. My paper aims to identify how MTV is attempting to evolve and stay relevant in an increasingly fragmented TV landscape and what obstacles the channel has had to overcome to adapt to the creation of the internet and the development of streaming platforms. MTV's golden channel age of music was contributed by the fact that at the time, we did not have the creation of the internet, nor did we have smartphones, it was a disconnected age and thus the channel was thriving. The channel was on around the clock and allowed us to embrace different kinds of music throughout the day, it was something almost heavenly when one would stumble upon a new song of interest or watching one of your favorite music videos play out, but in an age where YouTube, Spotify and Apple music are in the palms of our hands and streaming platforms being the new era of TV, how is MTV fighting to stay alive. In an era where video streaming and music can be viewed freely whenever we want, why is there a need for a music video channel, MTV president Van Toeffler said? “Clearly, the novelty of just showing music videos has worn off. It required us to reinvent ourselves to a contemporary audience.” MTV over the years has managed to reinvent itself, but at the cost of losing its initial broadcast musical theme and

Dannhauser 2 aimed at more of a reality show-style channel (Ringen), if we look at the timeline of MTV we can see that they have moved away from music and channeled its broadcasting abilities into reality tv shows. MTV cribs (2000) marked the turning point of the channel towards celebrities and away from music, thus appealing to fans who wanted to know how the rich and famous live, Jackass (2000), a group of friends filming them do ridiculous and stupid things, the show took off for viewers and was widely known around the world. Going further in time we take a look at shows like Jersey Shore (2009-2012) marked a greater turning point for the channel and into an age of teen reality television shows that captured the audience’s attention, with the shows being “Catfish” (2012-present), “Geordie shore” (2011-present) and “Just Tattoo of Us”(2017) but this is not the main interest on viewers with the channel. MTV has gone from music to amusement, a show that dominates most of the channels 24/7 network is a show called “Ridiculousness” and is currently on all the time (Denisoff), MTV was sold and bought by an American media conglomerate called Viacom. Viacom networks and the channel will stay on the air as long as there is a decent amount of viewership and airing the same high rated shows are common for Viacom networks to keep their viewership, as we see Comedy Central always has reruns of “South Park” and “The Office”, Nickelodeon has “SpongeBob” and “PAW Patrol” and Paramount Network has reruns of “Cops” and “Bar Rescue.” These shows have big enough fan bases to allow the channel to stay on and we see this with MTV and the show “Ridiculousness” is its stop seller to date. A study done 4 years ago by The New York Times, which had the 50 most liked Tv Shows had Ridiculousness ranked at number 13th and was most popular in certain demographic regions, such as Alaska and New Mexico, the show has taken over the entire network and reports of 168 hours on MTV resulted in 133 hours being “Ridiculousness.” This shift from linear Tv to non-linear is a massive result to why MTV has had to reinvent itself, the result of audiences not having to be prisoners to set time schedules for certain shows is why broadcast cable television is on the decline (Brosius) , the ease of non-linear programs always for the customizable viewing

Dannhauser 3 based on what they want to watch as well as when they are wanting to view them. In an interview in the documentary Showrunners: Jeff Melvoin, founder of The Writers Guild of America Showrunner Training Program, said that the television industry used to be like the solar system. Being that broadcast TV was the sun and we the consumers, the planets but now there are multiply solar systems with each having its own delivery platforms. MTV took a stance and followed up on what brings in viewership and “ridiculousness” is that show and almost combined linear and non-linear tv and that is why the show has dominated most of the given hours to the channel. Connected viewing is another advancement in the streaming age, it is how viewers engage with the media in a multiscreen, socially connected experience, for broadcasters the value in this connected viewing is the ability to try to keep the viewers active and engaged during the broadcast but can also be a downfall as it serves as a distraction from the Tv, especially during commercial breaks but can also serve to keep the viewer engaged by allowing viewers to engage more deeply with the content that interests them, I think MTV struggles with this aspect as unless people are looking up some of the reality tv show host and guest or sending the same funny video they see on “ridiculousness” to a friend to encourage viewership. I doubt most of the connected viewer is more of a distraction for MTV viewers and does not get much-needed forums that people visit online to see what other people are saying or talking about the channels program. One reinvention towards the connected viewer that MTV did was MTV hits, is a program broadcasted on Linear TV in both Argentina and Brazil during a prime schedule time for the channel. For 2 hours, music videos linked to specific hashtags, genres, and topics defined by production are shown. To keep the viewer active on the show different mechanics and forums were enforced to keep the audience connected for two hours and real-time conversations on Twitter would show up on the screen, where the best viewer comments are displayed, hashtags are displayed and viewers can participate while videos are played on air.

Dannhauser 4 The economy of attention refers to the information or marketing that treats the consumer's attention as a commodity, in order to get the consumer interested in the product and is the main reason for the decline of linear television and for MTV's biggest struggle is that Netflix and most other streaming platforms have this edge in the attention economy is mostly due to the large amounts of content they pose, having television and movies on a digital, networked platform. These platforms have an unlimited amount of content in which they can create, the downside to these platforms is geographical blocking, restricting content in certain geographical regions. As far as MTV and live television go, MTV does have an upper hand as many programs were launched and designed for specific geo regions appealing to different cultures, MTV's global expansion was an attempt to connect the world through music and trying to get a more diverse target audience ( Banks), such as MTV Asia and Europe and I think that small fan follows grew and is helping to keep the channel afloat. MTV has managed to overcome many obstacles since the creation of the internet, its change from a 24/7 music channel to a reality tv show program was a necessary change to maintain viewership and ad venue, nobody was willing to sit and watch music for hours on end anymore, as YouTube took that right away from the channel and made it easier for consumers to just look up songs that interested them, as well as the shift from linear to non-linear television was made it hard to appeal to consumers need and is the reason MTV is called the Ridiculousness network and for Viacom networks, having a decent amount of viewership will remain in the program staying on air by showing the same high rated shows. MTV doesn't have amazing viewership these days, but it does bring in decent enough numbers, and they'll air whatever they can to keep those numbers from sinking. They have implemented serval techniques and strategies to remain competitive in an increasingly fragmented TV landscape but how much longer will they remain afloat as a channel will

Dannhauser 5 eventually find a road block soon that they will not be able to cross as more and more people are disregarding cable television and moving onto non-linear platforms

Works Cited 1. "MTV Owner's Streaming Strategy: If You can't Beat them, Feed them." Dow Jones Institutional News, Oct 20 2018, ProQuest. Web. 2 Apr. 2021 .

2. Why We Need MTV Now More Than Ever | Consequence of Sound. https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/01/why-we-need-mtv-now-more-than-ever/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2021. 3. Denisoff, R. Serge. Inside MTV. Transaction Publishers, 1989.

4.) Banks, Jack. “MTV and the Globalization of Popular Culture.” Gazette (Leiden, Netherlands), vol. 59, no. 1, Feb. 1997, pp. 43–60, doi:10.1177/0016549297059001004. 5. Ringen, Jonathan. “MTV Strikes a Chord With Gen Z.” Fast Company, no. 220, Nov. 2017, pp. 48–52, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=bth&AN=12548 1058&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 6.) Brosius, Hans-Bernd, and Hans Mathias Kepplinger. “Linear and Nonlinear Models of Agenda‐ setting in Television.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 36, no. 1, Jan. 1992, pp. 5–23, doi:10.1080/08838159209364151.

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