After The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) came down hard on MTV Canada for not airing programs that fulfill their all-talk original format, the federal broadcast regulator has now rejected MuchMusic's request to air fewer music videos in favour of more "lifestyle" programming.
The nation's music station had asked the CRTC for a number of amendments to its licence, which included reducing the number of videos it plays from its current 50 per cent content to a mere 25 per cent. As well, CTV wanted to reduce the amount of Canadian content on Much, add in more animated programs to their roster and eliminate all French-language videos from its play list.
According to CBC, this amendment was also opposed by a number of organizations representing the music industry, including the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), who argued that by allowing this request to go through, MuchMusic would duplicate the programming of MTV Canada.
Senior vice-president of Toronto's Much MTV Group, Brad Schwartz, told the CBC that the network needs more flexibility because of its declining viewership.
"What the CRTC does in creating the nature of services and genre protections is to allow businesses to be special. And our problem is, music videos no longer make us special. When you look at a service like Vevo, which is owned by the record labels, we don't even get music video premieres anymore."
However, the CRTC did approve MuchMusic's request to operate 18 hours a day instead of 24, which means that the station will be allowed to broadcast whatever it wants between midnight and 6 a.m. without following the licence format.
CTVglobemedia isn't the only domestic broadcaster that has been under scrutiny by the federal regulatory board. Recently, Rogers Broadcasting was called to task for its G4 cable channel, which has departed from its original mandate to air computer and Internet-related programming.
Canwest Global Communications (now Shaw) was also under the CRTC's wagging finger for TVtropolis, which is designated as a cable channel for adults over 50 years of age, but instead was airing programming such as Project Runway Canada, which the regulators felt didn't fit their mandate.
Do you think MuchMusic should be allowed to air less music videos?
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