MTV News is the news production division of MTV. The service is available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network. In February 2016, MTV Networks confirmed it would refresh the MTV News brand in 2016, to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and Vice, however by mid-2017 MTV News was significantly downsized due to cutbacks. MTV News content is available from respective MTV websites, Apps, YouTube and on-air. In November 2018, MTV News will produce daily updates on Twitter titled MTV News: You Need To Know.
History
MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week in Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent. Since 1990, the opening riff to Megadeth's "Peace Sells" has been the main opening theme for The Week in Rock. It first began covering political news in the 1992 American presidential elections, through its "Choose or Lose" campaign. Since then, MTV has run "Choose or Lose" for other presidential elections in the United States. For the 2008 election, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton appeared on an MTV special to discuss the Iraq war. Throughout the 2000s, MTV News began publishing digital editorial content via their website, Twitter feed, YouTube channel and Facebook page, offering information about MTV programming and music/pop-culture news aggregation. In November 2015, MTV introduced a new direction for its news department and hired Dan Fierman, former editorial director of Grantland, as MTV's editorial director and announced it would produce longform journalism, think pieces and diversify its staff. However, in June 2017, MTV decided to restructure its news division with a greater focus on video, laying off much of their editorial staff. In December 2016, MTV News posted a video called "2017 New Years Resolutions for White Guys" as a New Year's special. The video features people telling white men what they think should do better in the then upcoming year of 2017. The video gained huge backlash for being racist and bigoted. The reupload of the video currently has 54,910 dislikes and 1,152 likes on YouTube.
MTV News in the U.S.
Current and former correspondents
MTV News International
When MTV launched in Europe it used a variation of MTV News US reports with localized European reporting. Upon regionalization of MTV channels in 1997, MTV begun to localize presenters and reporting depending on the MTV region. Its flagship programming in Europe consisted of a daily news update MTV News Update and a weekly highlights show called MTV News Weekend Edition, these ceased airing in the early 2000s. With the move of MTV towards more reality based programming MTV News bulletins became a short news bulletin on the hours between 16:00 to 22:00 Monday to Friday on some MTV channels. As of July 2013, Viacom International Media Networks has launched a new news bulletin which utilises the existing MTV News UK broadcasts. These MTV News International bulletins air on the majority of MTV channels in the English language which are either dubbed or subtitled. During MTV News broadcasts viewers are directed to mtvnews.co.uk for further news updates. The news bulletins are presented by MTV UK presenters. MTV Networks confirmed it would relaunch the MTV Brand and its content in mid-2016, MTV have yet to confirm whether this will impact on news broadcasts outside the US. By 2016, MTV News International was significantly reduced with news reports confined to social media and some localized MTV websites in the UK, the Benelux, Australia and New Zealand.
