Kids who grew up in the '80s and '90s would know: MTV was the shiz back then. The channel blazed a trail for visualizing music—it wasn’t enough that people heard their favorite songs; they needed to see them, too.
Closer to home, MTV launched an Asia-centric channel based in Singapore in 1995. Broadcasting content throughout most of Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, MTV Asia exuded cool and propelled its VJs to superstardom across the region.
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But all things must come to an end. On September 1, 2022, MTV Asia officially stopped broadcast and transmission after 27 years on the air. The cessation follows the launch of MTV’s On Demand service in Singapore as well as sister channel MTV Live, which is broadcast in parts of Europe, Middle East, Asia, and other parts of the world.
In the Philippines, SkyCable announced the rebranding of MTV Asia into MTV 90s last August 23. According to the post on its website, MTV 90s “will offer fans the best music of the 90s.”
Can’t say we’re surprised. The appeal of MTV back then was that it was the only way people could watch and enjoy the videos of their favorite songs and artists. With platforms like YouTube and on-demand streaming, people no longer have to tune in and wait for their videos to play.
As with many other things supplanted by the never-ending march of media and technology, MTV has become a relic of the past. People now tune in to MTV for the nostalgia factor, and since that’s the case, it makes sense for programming to focus on content from a specific time period. It’s the same thing with pop radio stations exclusively running songs from the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s on certain days of the week.
MTV 90s is available on SD channel 71 in Mega Manila and SD channel 642 elsewhere.
