MTV Brasil shutdown



MTV Brasil experienced financial problems since the end of 2009, when it started to lose its revenue. The problem worsened in 2012, which made journalists specializing in media speculate on the sale of the broadcaster and/or the return of the MTV brand to its worldwide owner, Viacom.

Daniel Castro, from the R7 portal, published on his blog on April 13, 2012 that the then News Corporation (Fox), Valdemiro Santiago and the Portuguese group Ongoing were interested in buying the channel. In the following month, the program Comédia MTV Ao Vivo showed a clip with the parody of the song Roda Viva, by Chico Buarque. The song, entitled Indiretas Já, talks about the current situation of television in general in an indirect way, as the title suggests. In the clip, comedians also mock MTV sales rumors.

Keila Jimenez, of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, published in her column of August 16, 2012 that Grupo Abril had started negotiations for the sale of the channel and the return of the MTV brand to Viacom. On the same day, in a note, the group denied that there were negotiations for the sale of the channel. After the publication of this news, the programs Furo MTV and Trolalá reacted with jokes about the sale. At Trolalá, comedian Paulinho Serra pranked MTV's lobby, pretending to be a representative of Eike Batista, who would be interested in buying the channel.

On May 15, 2013, Keila Jimenez published, in her column "Outro Canal" by Folha de S. Paulo, that the Grupo Abril did not intend to keep the music channel on the air beyond this year. The channel, even with a strong reduction in expenses, continued to have red bills. With no buyers interested at the moment, Grupo Abril would be analyzing two new management projects for the channel to remain on the air. Both projects involved returning the MTV Brasil brand to its owner, the North American programmer Viacom. The name MTV Brasil was a license paid annually by Abril to Viacom. One of the ideas was to keep the channel on the air, already under another name, betting only on humor productions in the current style. The other project, with a much lower cost, was to keep the channel without national productions, showing only documentaries and video clips. Viacom, which may receive the MTV Brasil brand back, would already be planning to relaunch the channel in the country.

On June 12, 2013, Keila Jimenez published in her column that Grupo Abril would return the MTV brand to Viacom, and launch a new television channel in its place, and launch a new television channel in its place, and Viacom, in turn, would relaunch MTV only on pay TV. This was confirmed later by the blog of columnist Patrícia Kogut, of the newspaper O Globo. The next day, the Acesso MTV program ended and presenters Titi Müller, Juliano Enrico and Pathy DeJesus were fired. The programs MTV Sem Vergonha and A Hora do Chay were also ended. In other areas, there was a cut in personnel, resulting in the dismissal of several professionals.

The following week, in an interview with journalist Daniel Castro, Zico Góes, the channel's programming director, confirmed that MTV would be returned to Viacom, without giving further details. The channel would continue launching new attractions until September 2013, when the MTV brand would be returned to Viacom.

On July 29, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN The Americas), Viacom's international division, announced that the channel would be relaunched on pay TV on October 1st. The company wanted the new MTV to reach 75% of pay TV subscribers, which represented a greater reach than the coverage of Abril's channel. The programmer intended to produce more than 350 hours of national content by December 2014, with Brazilian versions of programs such as MTV World Stage, Guy Code and Pranked, in addition to daily programs, series, extreme sports and realities. Dubbed versions of American feed programs will occupy most of the programming.

In its last days, MTV Brasil presented a nostalgic program full of reruns of the best moments recorded throughout its life cycle. In addition to the latest programs in the My MTV series with ex-VJs, the channel also showed, in partnership with Mídia Ninja, a last program involving a tour of the premises of the building where its headquarters was located, accompanied by a virtuous discussion about the past, present and future of the media. The programming was finished on September 30, 2013, at 11:59 PM. The last program shown was O Último Programa do Mundo (The World's Last Program), with Daniel Furlan and Juliano Enrico, then VJ Thunderbird said his farewell. In the opposite direction to the channel's inauguration, the ex-VJ Cuca Lazzarotto presents the last video clip "Maracatu Atômico" by the Brazilian manguebeat band Chico Science & Nação Zumbi, possibly as a form of self-affirmation of the name Brazil that made up its name, another recorded version was a clip with the moments of the Acoustic MTV Roberto Carlos, the famous "Acústico Proibidão", however, they decided not to air it. Also ex-VJ Astrid Fontenelle closes the schedule, since it was the same one that opened the broadcasts almost 23 years ago, thus ending the broadcasting cycle of the Grupo Abril's MTV Brasil. The last vignette broadcast was a selection of images of employees of the channel, with the song "Ôrra Meu", by Brazilian singer Rita Lee, with musical background. Finally, a stylized MTV logo appears on the screen in the colors of the Brazilian flag on a black background. The logo was decreasing and disappearing on that black background. This was the last image of MTV Brasil. Soon after, the transmission of Ideal TV began.

As part of the activities required to return the brand, the address mtv.com.br also stopped working at 10:30 PM on September 30, being redirected to addresses owned by Viacom.

As of October, the channel abandoned the name "Brazil", becoming only MTV.

Despite the shutdown of the first incarnation of MTV in Brazil years later, various VJs of MTV Brasil and including former executives of the channel, blamed YouTube and the internet for the end of the MTV Brasil, despite the real reason being mainly because due to the terrible management of the Grupo Abril in its last years (like removing MTV Brasil from the satellite dishes and replacing it with BRZ in 2012, due to high costs and non-commercial return), and also because of the Grupo Abril crisis and low ratings.

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