14 DAY TRIAL // Late last week, Lady Gaga dropped the official video for her collaboration with Beyonce, “Telephone.” Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, the clip almost instantly led to the question of whether it would be too hot for TV, with reports saying yesterday that MTV was among the first networks to ban it. Not quite so, MTV itself says, since the video aired on the network as early as Friday, only one hour after release.
The report seems to have originated from CNN, which claimed to know for a fact that MTV would not air the video, deeming it so explicit that it would not even subject it to the same treatment as other similar videos, but instead not play it at all. While CNN is usually a reliable source, this time it did not have its money on facts, MTV says in one of today’s articles, since Gaga’s latest video, the short film for “Telephone,” has been playing both on TV on the network and online.
“In the wake of reports that surfaced over the weekend claiming that MTV had banned Lady Gaga’s nearly 10-minute-long video for ‘Telephone,’ a spokesperson for the channel clarified the situation on Monday (March 15). MTV did not ban Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s ‘Telephone’ video – in fact, we premiered it on Friday, March 12, on-air and online at MTV.com, two days before this story was falsely reported,’ said MTV Executive Vice President of Music and Talent Amy Doyle. ‘Fans can continue to catch the video as we repeat it on-air and online.’ Music videos generally air on MTV weekdays between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m.,” MTV writes.
“The ‘Telephone’ video went live on MTV.com at 12:30 a.m. on Friday, an hour after it premiered on E!, and began airing on MTV that morning at 9:30 a.m. as part of the ‘Lady Gaga Artist Collection,’ which ended with a full-length airing of the video, a spokesperson for the channel said,” MTV further writes. As of now, fans can see the video online either on MTV or on YouTube, but they need to sign up for the latter, because of the potentially offensive and unsuitable content that has generated so much media these past few days.
As we were also telling you the other day, MTV came under serious fire for its alleged decision to ban the Gaga video: though it was racy enough to justify not getting play time during the day, nothing could explain why a network that used to call itself a “music television” channel would not air it at all, not even during the night.