MuchMusic

Much Music

Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults.

MuchMusic launched on August 31, 1984, under the ownership of CHUM Limited, and was originally focused on music programming, including blocks of music videos and original series focusing on Canadian musicians. In the years since its acquisition by Bell, Much has cancelled the majority of its music programming due to budget and staffing cuts. The channel's full name was retired in 2013 in reflection of its decreasing reliance on music-related programming.

History

Under CHUM (1984–2006)

MuchMusic was licensed on April 2, 1984, by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to CHUM Limited. It had faced competition from two other proposed services. One of them, CMTV Canadian Music Television, was deemed not to have sufficient financial resources. The third applicant was Rogers Radio Broadcasting. The CRTC believed that the Canadian market could only support one music video service and CHUM's proposal was chosen because of various commitments it had made and the company's expertise in music programming. The station was initially patterned on City Limits, an overnight weekend rock music show which had aired on sister station CITY-TV since 1983.

Shortly thereafter, MuchMusic was launched on August 31, 1984, as one of the first Canadian cable specialty channels. It was headed by the channel's founders John Martin and Moses Znaimer. The first video played on MuchMusic was "an early music-to-film synchronization short from the 1920s which featured Eubie Blake performing Snappy Songs." The first video made specifically for television air play was Rush's "The Enemy Within". MuchMusic's slogan, and on-air advertising, was "The Nation's Music Station".

Making use of CHUM's facilities and production teams, the channel produced many specialty musical and variety shows, including the long-running dance show Electric Circus and the late 1980s game show Test Pattern, and Citytv shows such as City Limits, The Power Hour, The MuchMusic Spotlight and The New Music also became integral parts of the MuchMusic schedule.

The channel's format consisted primarily of an eight-hour daily block which mixed scheduled shows with VJ-hosted general "videoflow", which would then be repeated two more times to fill the 24-hour schedule. Some variance from this model was seen with the late-night shows City Limits and Too Much 4 Much (a show that featured panel discussions surrounding controversial music videos that the channel had refused to air in regular rotation), and live specials such as Intimate and Interactive.

For the first few years of the channel, it was classified as a pay television service and was therefore offered largely in bundles along with other pay-stations such as First Choice and TSN, and would occasionally offer free preview weekends for non-subscribers. The subscriber count was at 500,000 customers by December 1984. In December 1987, MuchMusic received permission from the CRTC to move to basic cable lineups beginning on September 1, 1989; in the interim cable operators could offer the channel as a negative-option expanded basic channel.

A US version of MuchMusic, originally known as "MuchMusic USA", was launched in the U.S. on July 1, 1994, through a partnership with Rainbow Media. The network was largely a simulcast of the Canadian version with U.S. advertising and acquired programs. The network would go into its own direction over time, eventually rebranding as Fuse in 2003.

In 1995, the annual Canadian Music Video Awards were renamed to the "MuchMusic Video Awards" (presently known as the "iHeartRadio MMVAs" as of 2018). Since 1996, the ceremonies have been held outside the formerly-named "MuchMusic Headquarters" on 299 Queen Street West, the present-day main offices for Bell Media's speciality channels.

In 2002, MuchMusic introduced promos that consisted of one of twelve images of a VJ posing in front of the network's logo, lasting for only 1/60th of a second each. The "quickies" were recognized with a Guinness World Record for the world's shortest television commercial.

Under Bell (2006–present)

In July 2006, Bell Globemedia (later called CTVglobemedia) announced that it would purchase CHUM for an estimated $1.7 billion CAD, included in the sale was MuchMusic. The sale was subject to CRTC approval and was approved in June 2007, with the transaction completed on June 22, 2007, while the Citytv stations were sold to Rogers Media in the same year. Since then, MuchMusic has aired a vast number of non-music related shows, mainly teen dramas and reality shows.

In 2010, the CRTC rejected a request by CTVglobemedia to reduce the percentage of music video programming that the channel shows from 50 to 25 percent. CTV's second request to the CRTC to reduce and reposition its Canadian programming was also denied. For the reasoning behind these requests, CTV explained that "music videos no longer distinguish the service as they are readily available through other sources." This was met with mixed reaction by music fans and drew the ire of notable artists.

On June 1, 2011, MuchMusic launched its high definition simulcast feed.

Beginning in September 2013, the channel would air more comedy programming targeting young adult men during the late afternoon and primetime hours, much of it moved from The Comedy Network. Such shows included Comedy Central series (such as South Park, Tosh.0 and The Jeselnik Offensive), reruns of The Simpsons and The Cleveland Show, as well as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Conan. These changes came when Comedy's request for licence amendments to reduce requirements for Canadian content and increase the amount of animated programming it could air was denied. The channel officially dropped the word "Music" from its name in press releases and promos as a result of this revamp, becoming known simply as Much, and the channel became a sister network to Canal D, Canal Vie, Vrak, and Z. Subsequently, a variety of other Astral Media properties (Family, Disney XD, the two Disney Junior services, MusiquePlus, MusiMax, seven radio stations, the Teletoon networks, Historia, and Séries+) — were sold to third parties.

Most of the channel's previous non-music programming, such as Pretty Little Liars and , moved to sister channels M3 (formerly MuchMoreMusic & MuchMore) and MTV respectively. At the same time the channel cut back further on original music-related programming apart from Video on Trial, The Wedge, countdowns, and other non-hosted blocks of music videos, with New.Music.Live. confirmed to have been cancelled and the likes of RapCity no longer appearing on Much's schedule. By the summer of 2014, amidst production and staffing cutbacks, the Countdown went on hiatus and Much's remaining original shows, including a revamped Video on Trial, were cancelled.

Meanwhile, in August, Much celebrated its 30th anniversary. A half-hour anniversary special, "30 Years of Much", aired on August 30, 2014, and was preceded by a full-day countdown of The 100 Greatest Videos Ever. Repeats of both the special and the countdown aired throughout the Labour Day weekend. On September 27, 2014, the Countdown returned with a revamped format.

On April 1, 2015, Much announced the launch of Much Digital Studios (later renamed Much Studios), a production unit and YouTube multi-channel network. The network features content catered towards Much's demographic of 12-34s, and would also be integrated into their on-air programming. Such content includes the Mike On Much podcast, hosted by Mike Veerman, co-produced by Arkells lead singer Max Kerman, and featuring segments led by Shane Cunningham. The podcast eventually spawned the spin-off series Much Studios presents "Mike on Much in Conversation With...", which premiered in 2018 on sibling service Crave.

On August 12, 2016, Bell Media sold MuchLoud, MuchRetro, MuchVibe and Juicebox to Stingray Digital. On September 1, 2016, M3 was shut down and replaced by Gusto, a cooking and lifestyle-oriented TV network that Bell Media acquired, after the original Gusto TV closed in March 2016.

In late 2017, Much further cut back on music programming, reducing its music blocks to the morning hours and removing the Much Countdown from its schedule. MuchFACT was also discontinued, as a result of the CRTC having dropped the requirement for Much to fund it. On October 11, 2017, Much premiered Sides*, a new talk show which discusses youth issues; it is streamed live on Twitter, and compiled into weekly televised editions on the channel. In November 2017, Much began to air a Friday-night block known as Icons, which featured airings of music-related documentaries.

In 2019, the daytime Playlist block of music videos was discontinued and replaced with library programming, citing decreased interest and viewership. In addition, that year's MMVAs, which were moved to August the previous year, were delayed due to scheduling conflicts with the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. The Much Retro Lunch block remained the only regularly-scheduled music video programming on the channel, with the network citing its popularity among youth as a factor. The block was discontinued on March 20, 2020, and was later replaced by Corner Gas. The last music video that the channel aired was Irreplaceable by Beyonce.

On June 10, 2021, it was announced that the "MuchMusic" name would be revived for a new "digital-first" network to launch on July 7 in-partnership with TikTok. The network would feature new "creator-driven content", including revivals of old Much programming. Meanwhile, the linear TV channel would continue with its current format and programming under the "Much" brand.