The Same Everywhere

For a brief stretch, all the European MTV and VIVA channels were broadcasting unencrypted on Astra Digital satellite—free, no subscription, no explanation. Whether it was a technical error or some kind of deliberate stunt, nobody could say. I flipped through the international feeds anyway, and the funniest part was how utterly identical they were to the domestic version. Same videos, same rotation, same everything. You half-expect to find something different when the gate accidentally swings open. You don’t. It’s the same machine running in every country, just in a slightly different language.