They didn't drop the ball. Much like Netflix, once they were successful people started demanding more and more to show their content, which eventually escalated into failure to reach licensing deals.
The article seems to suggest that the issue is niche media and stratification. The author writes:
"And certainly, MTV isn’t “the new MTV.” Viacom (the media company that bought MTV in 1985) failed to transition to the internet era and lost control of the zeitgeist. The channel, now visually bland, seems to play an endless loop of Ridiculousness episodes. A few years ago, Tom Freston said “It breaks my heart” to look at the current state of MTV.
Nothing can be “the new MTV,” because 2021 is as different from 1981 as 1981 was from 1901. If there is a new singularity, it’s the Internet itself, a rabbit hole big enough for all mankind. Mass media has been replaced by niche media, and music platforms, like most of pop culture, are stratified."
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They didn't drop the ball. Much like Netflix, once they were successful people started demanding more and more to show their content, which eventually escalated into failure to reach licensing deals.
No just something effecting MTV of course. There are TV shows that no longer air, and have no DVD release, because the costs to license the music in them again is prohibitive: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090117/0537253446.shtml
The article seems to suggest that the issue is niche media and stratification. The author writes:
"And certainly, MTV isn’t “the new MTV.” Viacom (the media company that bought MTV in 1985) failed to transition to the internet era and lost control of the zeitgeist. The channel, now visually bland, seems to play an endless loop of Ridiculousness episodes. A few years ago, Tom Freston said “It breaks my heart” to look at the current state of MTV.
Nothing can be “the new MTV,” because 2021 is as different from 1981 as 1981 was from 1901. If there is a new singularity, it’s the Internet itself, a rabbit hole big enough for all mankind. Mass media has been replaced by niche media, and music platforms, like most of pop culture, are stratified."