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MTV’s music channels clear schedules after Liam Payne death

Two of MTV’s music channels have made changes to their schedule to pay tribute to the former One Direction singer Liam Payne.

Following the death of Liam Payne, who fell off a balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday, MTV has made changes to its music channel schedules to pay tribute to the the singer.

MTV Music and MTV Hits (Sky UK/Ireland 350/351 and Virgin Media UK 280/282) have cleared their schedules until 4am on Friday morning for Liam Payne: A Tribute, with the channels airing music videos featuring both his time in One Direction, plus his solo hits. In a statement MTV said “We’re deeply saddened to learn of Liam Payne’s tragic passing today. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends and fans”.

Both channels are exclusively available on pay TV platforms.

Currently, none of the remaining free-to-air music channels are making changes to their schedules. Following the closure of the Box Plus Network of music channels, most of the remaining free music channels focus on music pre-dating the One Direction era.

Elsewhere on TV…

In an unexpected schedule change, BBC Two and the UK version of the BBC News Channel earlier simulcast a special phone-in hosted by BBC Radio 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell, as listeners took time to pay tribute and digest the news. Nicky Campbell’s regular TV simulcast on BBC News was quietly dropped late last year, only returning on an ad-hoc basis.

The BBC was criticised on social media on Wednesday night for being late to report on the news. BBC News eventually ran with the story midway during an edition of World News America.