MTV - Mindless Television

[Xenubis]

What most people forget is that MTV, along with all other TV channels, Radio stations, magazines, news papers, belongs to the mass media industry and so, their first role is to make money. They don't care what they are showing as long as they make profits. And what better way to make profits than to show kids what they like. They could play music and forget about all the shows but then their ratings will drop and the money pile will dwindle in size.

On a side note, the reason you see so many reality shows on MTV is that the reality show format is the most popular tv show. Just look at what Big Brother did.

 

[Kragg]

Wait... wasnt it a music channel?

Yes, 20 years ago.


Thoooooose were the daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays~

10 or so i think, around the time reality tv was invented?

 

[ReincarnatedFTP]

There is only good thing MTV ever did.
Daria.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Wait... wasnt it a music channel?

Not for a long time now. Seems that people didn't want to see music videos on a music channel. They wanted "REAL LIFE" and...MORE REAL LIFE, innit.

See Syfy.

Argh, SyFy is even worse; billions upon billions of ghost-whatever shows...

I don't even watch MTV anymore. I used to watch Pimp My Ride occasionally (on music television, the hilarity), but only because it was so ridiculous. Well, somebody is bound to watch the channel religiously...

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

On a side note, the reason you see so many reality shows on MTV is that the reality show format is the most popular tv show. Just look at what Big Brother did.

This is true to an extent, but it's more because reality shows are so cheap to make than because they actually pull in the ratings. Think about it; no scripts, no special effects, heck -- on most of the shows they're making now, the budget for whatever project is being showcased is supplied by the family of the day. What really gets me is when channels like SyFy, which has a huge backlog of good series that it has the rights to -- any of which should pull in decent ratings -- start showing crappy reality shows instead.

 

[Jumping_Over_Fences]

I'll be honest, I never really knew MTV as a music channel, so losing the music does not really affect me. However, I miss the early nineties when it had some very strange programming. I miss the strange, before its time comedy of The State and The Ben Stiller Show. Also, the cutting edge animation of Aeon Flux and craziness of The Head. MTV used to be ground breaking and strange, now it is just boring. That is worth lamenting.