MTV pulls plug on user-generated channel after poor viewing figures

MTV Networks UK & Ireland is scrapping its user-generated content channel MTV Flux after just 16 months having failed to attract viewers

The channel, which launched in September 2006 in the place of music channel VH2, will be replaced by a one-hour timeshift of MTV One, MTV One plus One, next month. MTV One relaunched last year with a greater emphasis on shows and programmes rather than music videos.

Flux marked MTV’s first serious bid to tap into the popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and YouTube but has failed to find a broadcast audience. It aimed to combine social networking and video sharing programming with music videos and aired on digital satellite and cable.

However, MTV says the Flux brand will not be scrapped. An MTV spokesman says: “We will keep and support the MTV Flux online community and then evolve Flux elements for each of the music channels – MTV Base, Hits, Dance and MTV Two.

He says the brand was always planned to “evolve” and a timeshift version of MTV One had been planned since the “successful” relaunch. Flux’s performance led the network to replace the channel. “It didn’t do greatly,” the spokesman adds. “That’s what made us look at it.”

Prior to launch, Flux was lauded as a “unique proposition for advertisers” but it failed to record an average weekly viewing per person in the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) November survey and only a small number of viewers for December