MTV shuts down Asian channels

Harry Mok
February 21, 2007

MTV's move follows programming cuts at AZN Television, which is mostly repeats and movies now. ImaginAsian is still hanging in there as well.

MTV should get credit for making the effort and trying the niche in creating MTV Chi (for Chinese Americans, MTV Desi (for South Asians) and MTV K (for Korean Americans) rather than the one-size-fits-all approach that many other media outlets have taken.

The reality is there is no definition of "Asian American" that rolls off a marketing executive's tongue easily. According to this study, Asian-American youth feel ignored, excluded and misunderstood by most brands. It's probably just not the youth that feel this way.

Many Asian American media outlets have tried and died, but we here at Hyphen are going strong and will make our best effort to be relevant to as many people as possible.

Contributor: 

Harry Mok

Editor in chief

Editor in Chief Harry Mok wrote about growing up on a Chinese vegetable farm for the second issue of Hyphen and has been a volunteer editor since 2004. As a board member of the San Francisco and New York chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association, Harry has recruited and organized events for student members. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a graduate student instructor in the Asian American Studies Department.

Comments

Comments

Gil wrote on Wed, 02/21/2007 - 1:09pm
Last time I checked, Hyphen was also employing a "one-size-fits-all" strategy. If a company with the resources and "cache" of MTV (Viacom) couldn't succeed in creating ethnic specific channels-- don't expect it to happen anytime soon.Supporters of Asian American television had better start supporting AZN and iaTV or they will be gone soon too.
Darren wrote on Wed, 02/21/2007 - 4:36pm
ABS-CBN is launching its MYX music channel here in the USA on February 28th.http://beta.myx.tv/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MYX
Anonymous wrote on Wed, 02/21/2007 - 8:54pm
Hyphen is the best thing out there. Keep up the good work. For pop culture culture to succed in America from a minority group, it has to be dumbed, down and stereotyped. Take Todays Hip op for example, or rock N roll, or Hollywood. these genres of entertainment do not uplift people today, but Asians are so kick to accept them. stay Asian 100 percent support Asian
SoulSnax wrote on Tue, 02/27/2007 - 3:15pm
While some Asian activists may be petitioning to keep MTV-Chi, MTV-K, and MTV-Desi up and running, I say GOOD RIDDANCE.It's not that I do not support Asian-American culture. I am a fervent supporter, consumer and producer of such content. But MTV World is just a cultural ghetto to which Asian-Americans have been relegated so as not to contaminate what Viacom perceives to be marketable mainstream culture.But imagine what would have happened with U2 in the 1980s if Bono and pals were relegated only to an "MTV-Eire." Would they have ever broken into the American mainstream?Which begs the question: if MTV-Chi, MTV-K, and MTV-Desi were to shut down, would their content and programming then migrate to the mainstream MTV? I wouldn't bet on it, but it would be nice, wouldn't it?
STAY wrote on Tue, 02/27/2007 - 8:34pm
When a culture goes mainstream, its the ending of that Art form. Since Hip Hop has become so commercilzed its falling. Its saturated with so much junk its not worth listening to anymore. If Asian culture went mainstream it would be ruined. Keep it in the neighborhood