Viacom Forces MTV Awards Show on Its Many Channels

I don't suppose that, in the grand scheme of things, it really matters all that much to me as a TV viewer...but it does give me some pause when a major media corporation decides to flex its muscles and demonstrate the control it has over my television dial.  Last night I happened to be toggling my remote back and forth between MLS soccer and the NFL preseason game between the Jaguars and Bengals.  I checked out the lineup for the different channels and noted that MTV was holding its annual Video Music Awards program.  Good for them, I said to myself...I had long given up on MTV after it had abandoned showing music videos in favor of those horrible "reality" TV shows that continue to this day.  But hey, they're still giving out awards for music videos...they must be showing them on another channel.  But back to what I was saying...

I was perusing the schedule and began to notice that not just MTV was showing the VMAs...so was VH1, VH1 Classics, CMT, and BET.  Okay, I said to myself, these channels tend to be music-oriented and the company running MTV probably also runs them as well.  But still, I wondered: why prevent these other stations from offering viewers a choice in their programming when MTV is almost universally available anyway?  But then it got worse...

It wasn't just the aforementioned channels showing the MTV Video Music Awards...it was also Spike, Comedy Central, and...of all channels...TVLand!  People go to watch TVLand for the expressed purpose of avoiding crap like MTV!  But I'm not finished...there used to be a channel called Palladia that featured live musical performances.  Last year it was changed to MTV-Live, but the programming seemed to remain unchanged.  I checked that channel: it wasn't showing the VMA show...it wasn't showing anything! Not until the MTV awards show was over did it go back to its regular programming.  So what gives here?

Viacom Media Groups is the umbrella commercial organization controlling MTV, VH1, BET, Spike, Comedy Central, CMT, and TVLand.  They essentially pulled a power play on the American viewer last night, dictating that we could watch their lousy awards program (and it is very, very lousy) or else.  Well, I chose "else".  But today I read that this overhyped ceremony, dominated by clique-insider acts who always seem to win the awards despite their substandard music, never once paid tribute to either Prince or David Bowie.  These two artists, both of whom passed away a few months ago this year, were giants in the industry.  Both of them made appearances in the past on the MTV VMAs shows and won awards for their videos.  But they were spurned this year.  I am resisting a strong urge to say something really profane here...

You may think that you have a great diversity of television programming to choose from, but events like last night's should remind all of us of the concentrated power that a small number of corporate entities have to dictate what we actually get to see.  No wonder so many people are choosing to reject cable television programming in favor of alternatives...