Not MTV exclusively, but yes I knew kids (in elementary school!) that watched TV for hours every day (although I didn’t grow up with that habit).
Pretty sure the same hours-a-day thing was true for video games as well, although in my view at least that’s not totally passive and was sometimes social (kids playing against each other in person).
Which I suppose was a small minority. Defintely not the case with TikTok.
That seems to fit with this recent data [1], which shows the average as still high but lower in the younger demographic. It has the 65+ group as 7+ hrs/day on average, which seems mildly horrifying considering half of people are likely above that. But perhaps not surprising - especially with the obesity rates being what they are, many people may not be very mobile at that age.
[1] https://www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by...
Do they used to watch MTV in School?
Do they used to watch MTV while waiting for bus?
Was their classmates all making videos for MTV?