[seligcharles130]

Bell has officially confirmed the shutdown in a The Globe and Mail article.

Some shows will be moving to Much and CTV, as well as Crave.

 

[CanuckWarrior]

I never liked that bloody channel, they aired How.its made on that along with Animal planet for a while, why the **** was that on there

 

[seligcharles130]

I never liked that bloody channel, they aired How.its made on that along with Animal planet for a while, why the **** was that on there

Because Bell likes to put incorrect programming on their channels. Here are other infamous examples of specialty channels airing the wrong programs:

1. OLN - Aired The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob's Burgers in its final 20 months before its shutdown and the launch of Bravo
2. CTV Life Channel - Airs Blue Bloods and movies.
3. Disney Channel - Airs Sony/DreamWorks/Illumination movies instead of Disney's own kind

 

[Humbar]

Why bother branding a channel is the programming doesn't reflect the brand

 

[ExDilbert]

Most didn't start out that way. They usually reflected original brand's channels in theme and programming. Sometimes the original brand changed, stopped producing as much programming or disappeared. Other times the Canadian broadcaster just stopped airing matching content and turned them into a zombie channel that made money from subscriptions by airing the cheapest content available. The fact that most TV service providers were owned by the same companies and inflated prices and profits by only offering monolithic TV packages that forced consumers to accept those channels compounded the issue.

MTV is an example of a channel that radically changed content. It started out as a music video channel and expanded to a wider range of music oriented programming. Then it quickly switched to reality based programming that appealed to the same demographic. MTV should never have been approved in Canada. It wasn't allowed in Canada originally because MuchMusic had licensed the music video genre. Much also mirrored MTV's sub-brands with it's own sub-brands. When the CRTC stopped enforcing genre licenses, MTV was approved and many other genre based stations started turning into endless rerun and zombie channels.

 

[Mc123]

Most didn't start out that way. They usually reflected original brand's channels in theme and programming. Sometimes the original brand changed, stopped producing as much programming or disappeared. Other times the Canadian broadcaster just stopped airing matching content and turned them into a zombie channel that made money from subscriptions by airing the cheapest content available. The fact that most TV service providers were owned by the same companies and inflated prices and profits by only offering monolithic TV packages that forced consumers to accept those channels compounded the issue.

MTV is an example of a channel that radically changed content. It started out as a music video channel and expanded to a wider range of music oriented programming. Then it quickly switched to reality based programming that appealed to the same demographic. MTV should never have been approved in Canada. It wasn't allowed in Canada originally because MuchMusic had licensed the music video genre. Much also mirrored MTV's sub-brands with it's own sub-brands. When the CRTC stopped enforcing genre licenses, MTV was approved and many other genre based stations started turning into endless rerun and zombie channels.

Except that MTV Canada came in 2001, whereas the genre protection law ended in 2016. The first version by Craig Media was allowed to run music, but only by 10%. This version became Bell's MTV2. Bell's MTV came in 2006 as a rebrand of a channel named TalkTV that launched in 2000. This version wasn't allowed to run any music programming to the point that they didn't use the Music Television tagline at all when the US and international versions were still using it until 2010.

 

[ExDilbert]

You are correct about that. By 2001 MTV (US) had already switched to mostly reality program. They still produced a few music specials but had few or no music videos. I believe Much and Much More were still showing a few videos and some of the music specials produced by MTV and VH1. The switch to reality programming was how the application for MTV Canada got approved. By 2016, the whole genre premise for TV channels was becoming a bit of a joke anyway. Some channels were just showing TV reruns and movies that loosely fit the genre premise but new genre specific programming had disappeared on many of them.

 

[seligcharles130]

With MTV falling, who can fall next? It all depends on who decides to close next.

I have my eyes on Corus probably planning to shut down those rerun farms Nickelodeon and CMT. Neither are available on StackTV nor River TV, and are no longer mentioned in any press releases. Nick content would still be airing on YTV and Treehouse TV moving forward, until programming rights fully expire and are made streaming only.

If I had to guess, ABC Spark and History 2 might also be set to close. ABC Spark's U.S. feed Freeform was pulled from Spectrum last year. The U.S. History 2 was shuttered in late February 2016, being replaced with Vice TV.

 

[ExDilbert]

I suspect that most specialty channels will be replaced by FAST channels in the next few years. A lot of them already look like FAST channels but with a higher price.

 

[Humbar]

The big money losers are the kids channels. YTV, ABC Spark and Treehouse are all losing money, although surprisingly CMT is making a healthy profit so I doubt they will shudder it.

 

[seligcharles130]

The big money losers are the kids channels. YTV, ABC Spark and Treehouse are all losing money, although surprisingly CMT is making a healthy profit so I doubt they will shudder it.

So YTV, Treehouse TV, and ABC Spark are all losing money, and could be gone in the next couple of years or decades. Content from the first two would be folded into Nickelodeon (for Nick shows and originals) and the WildBrain channels (for Peacock and Netflix originals).

CMT is actually doing pretty fine? Okay. What we need them to do is air some adult animated shows.

If I had to guess, E! is most likely on the chopping block as well. It may not be when it gets USA Network and Oxygen for sibling networks this January.

 

[Mc123]

So YTV, Treehouse TV, and ABC Spark are all losing money, and could be gone in the next couple of years or decades. Content from the first two would be folded into Nickelodeon (for Nick shows and originals) and the WildBrain channels (for Peacock and Netflix originals).

CMT is actually doing pretty fine? Okay. What we need them to do is air some adult animated shows.

If I had to guess, E! is most likely on the chopping block as well. It may not be when it gets USA Network and Oxygen for sibling networks this January.

If it wasn't for Corus' situation, I feel that CMT should rebrand to Comedy Central Canada. The fact that Paramount own a stake of that channel make it a perfect fit.

I'm still a little surprised that MTV Canada is closing before E! Canada. As E! run fewer originals and first run programs as well as having less carriage privileges than the former.

 

[Humbar]

No way CMT is rebranding to Comedy Central. Comedy Central has a fully branded Free channel already on Pluto Tv Canada, so that won't happen.

 

[Mc123]

No way CMT is rebranding to Comedy Central. Comedy Central has a fully branded Free channel already on Pluto Tv Canada, so that won't happen.

The CC channels on Pluto TV only run legacy programming. Right now, these isn't any channels that run any current CC programs beside The Daily Show.

 

[seligcharles130]

No way CMT is rebranding to Comedy Central. Comedy Central has a fully branded Free channel already on Pluto Tv Canada, so that won't happen.

Yeah. I highly doubt that CMT will rebrand as Comedy Central. Some shows (most notable offender being South Park) were made streaming exclusive.

 

[Humbar]

Even the US Comedy Central is mostly repeats most of the time. Funny they are airing Yellowstone, what does that have to do with Comedy.

 

[Mc123]

Yeah. I highly doubt that CMT will rebrand as Comedy Central. Some shows (most notable offender being South Park) were made streaming exclusive.

Only the 1 hour South Park specials are streaming exclusive, the main show itself is still a CC original. The Beavis and Butt-Head reboot, which first two seasons are streaming exclusive, is moving to CC for the third.

Even the US Comedy Central is mostly repeats most of the time. Funny they are airing Yellowstone, what does that have to do with Comedy.

Yellowstone and Lioness seem to only be there for today. Probably some kind of sneak peak. They still doesn't fit on the channel, though.

 

[TV64Niagara]

Maybe Paramount Global brings the U.S. MTV Network into Canada to replace the Canadian version of the network on Cable TV providers in Canada and also bring MTV2 U.S. into Canada

 

[seligcharles130]

Maybe Paramount Global brings the U.S. MTV Network into Canada to replace the Canadian version of the network on Cable TV providers in Canada and also bring MTV2 U.S. into Canada

I highly doubt that this will happen.

Paramount is withdrawing the last two remaining U.S. networks (CBS Sports Network, BET) from Canadian distribution on January 1. None of their other U.S. brands will make Canadian distribution anytime soon.

And Corus may be considering cutting ties with Paramount for their two licensed channels, but they would retain the programming rights for an interim period.

 

[TV64Niagara]

CTV 2 and Much Network would carry the MTV original programming lineup and Crave would stream the original MTV shows the next day