(often referred to only as '''Much''') is a
Canadian English Language Cable Television Specialty Channel owned by
CTVglobemedia dedicated to music and music-related programs.
MuchMusic was licensed on
April 2 ,
1984 by the
Canadian Radio-television And Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to
CHUM Limited . Shortly thereafter MuchMusic was launched on
August 31 ,
1984 as one of the first Canadian cable specialty channels on the air. It was headed by
John Martin and
Moses Znaimer , the channel's founders. On
June 22 ,
2007 , CTVgm gained control of MuchMusic as a result of a takeover of CHUM Limited.
The first video played on MuchMusic was
Rush 's "
The Enemy Within ".
logo.]] The first logo for MuchMusic when it first began was a big ''M'' with ''Muchmusic'' boxed in the centre of the M. The logo was slightly redesigned as a big ''M'' with a small ''m'' inside the outline, with the word ''Muchmusic'' below the logo. In
1996 , the current logo was designed with a black-and-white Much superimposed on a planet with longitude/latitude lines on the surface. The logo change was to portray MuchMusic as more modern and youthful.
Making use of CHUM's facilities and production teams, the channel has produced many specialty musical and variety programs, including the long-running dance program ''
Electric Circus '' and the late-1980s game show ''
Test Pattern '', and it adopted some programs originally created for CHUM such as ''
City Limits '', which featured
Alternative videos.
The network airs three viewer voting programs: ''
MuchOnDemand '', ''
MuchTakeOver '' and ''
PunchMuch ''.
MuchMusic is well-known for its annual music awards show every June. It is anticipated and promoted for weeks before the night of the
MMVAs .
It has been credited with helping to foster a vibrant Canadian music scene simply by following the
Canadian Content broadcast rules which guaranteed native musical acts had a secure and prominent place on the channel's play schedule. As well, MuchMusic funds the creation of new Canadian music videos through ''
VideoFACT '' and produces the popular album series ''
Big Shiny Tunes '' and ''
MuchDance ''.
It ran afoul of Canadian broadcast regulators in the early 1990s when it aired the animated series ''
Ren And Stimpy ''; it was forced to take the program off the air on the basis that it was not a music-based program as per the network's licence.
The network also generated controversy by occasionally banning videos it deemed too racy or violent for broadcast (MTV also weathered similar controversy). Often, the network would broadcast banned videos as part of a ''
Too Much 4 Much '' special, followed by discussion with viewers and concerned groups about why the video should or shouldn't be aired (but rarely would videos be unbanned). On the flipside, the worst videos of the year would also be featured in annual New Year's specials entitled ''
Fromage '' (
French for "
Cheese ").
In recent years, particularly with the brief arrival of MTV on Canadian digital cable, the influence of MuchMusic has waned, and the channel has had to weather criticism that it focuses too much on "top 40" acts and imported MTV "reality shows" like
Stars On Trial ''', featured popular VOT regular
Ron Sparks as the judge and was the highest-rated special of the year (other than the annual
MuchMusic Video Awards show). Stars on Trial now is it's own show.
Much has also been the centre of controversy because of its leniency in censorship. The channel often airs profane terms like "
Shit ", and "
Goddamn ", and sometimes even "
Fuck ". This is its most contrasting feature against MTV, which goes great lengths in
Censoring Music .
MuchMusic was launched in part to capitalize on the success of
MTV , the American cable music channel that had premiered a few years earlier. Although never an affiliate, Much over the years would often broadcast MTV-produced programming such as awards shows, concerts, reality tv series and more. MTV itself was not permitted in Canada because of
Canadian Radio-television And Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) restrictions on format protection. However, no such restrictions existed in the
United States , where CHUM attempted to compete with MTV through
MuchUSA (now the unaffiliated
Fuse ).
Perhaps owing to this, MTV was unwilling to extend its relationship with MuchMusic longer than necessary, and has made two attempts to launch a competing MTV channel in Canada. The first attempt began in 2001 when
MTV Canada was launched by
Craig Media and
Viacom . MTV Canada had an edge over MuchMusic in that it was licensed by the CRTC as a broadly based teen channel and could air programming from various categories not just music related. In 2004, MTV Canada's owners were bought by CHUM, allowing Viacom to exit its contract with Craig, and stripped MTV programming and branding from the channel forcing Viacom to find another partner to bring MTV to Canada.
The next attempt began in 2006 when Viacom partnered with CTV to rebrand its low rated specialty channel as MTV. With the new launch of MTV in March 2006, MuchMusic lost all rights to MTV programming from that point forward.
Since the acquisition of CHUM (which includes MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic) by CTVgm, MTV and MuchMusic have technically been under the same ownership since June 2007. CTVgm has announced that they plan on maintaining all CHUM's specialty channels including both MuchMusic and MTV. Currently both CTVgm and Viacom have no plans on disaffiliating either channel from its programming and/or branding. In fact, Much and MTV have even begun airing eachother's promo ads (ex. Muchmusic airing a promo for MTV's
The Hills ).
With the success of MuchMusic, several spinoff channels have been launched with in Canada and around the world, including:
Every year or so, when new
Video Jockey s are needed, Much will run a "
VJ Search " to pick one new VJ to join the team of VJs. They will usually visit cities across Canada and pick people who appear to show potential through their audition. In earlier years, the VJ Search was usually a two-part show, but in 2006 it evolved into its own reality series.
Despite the popularity of the VJ Search, most VJs are still hired by Much directly, without being VJ Search contestants.
