TORONTO – If Canadians want their MTV, they’ll be getting it in spades starting this evening.
CTV is bringing the long-entrenched American brand back to the Great White North on six platforms, delivering MTV content “with a distinctly Canadian attitude.”
Calling it “the single-biggest multi-platform launch in the history of Canadian television,” CTV will flip on the MTV switch at 6 p.m. ET Tuesday in six ways.
First, it will change the talktv analog specialty service into MTV, featuring lifestyle, talk, and documentary programming, along with “distinct and interactive Canadian series.” It’s subscribed to by some 6 million Canadian households via cable and DTH satellite.
MTV the specialty channel’s flagship program will be an interactive talk series called MTV Live, to be shown several times a day, according to its program grid. All-Canadian, it will feature interviews, debates, surprise guests, and roving reporters covering things like fashion, celebrities, politics, and sex, hosted by a team of fresh faces: Jessi Cruickshank, Nicole Holness, Daryn Jones, Daniel Levy, Gilson Lubin, Diane Salema, and Aliya-Jasmine Sovani. Other programming highlights: “Cribs” will give viewers a first-person tour of celebrity homes from the worlds of entertainment, politics, sports, and business, and feature Canadians such as Leafs’ tough guy Darcy Tucker, funnyman Kevin McDonald, and singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman. “Diary” documents personalities behind the scenes, and will show Canucks such as Olympic gold medallist Cindy Klassen, actor Tom Green, and rockers Simple Plan.
Next, CTV will launch MTV Overdrive, a new broadband channel offering free on-demand content, including full-length programs from the MTV channel. Since the TV channel is limited in its music content because the genre is protected for MuchMusic, the Web site will have a strong music component, featuring MTV music events, live performances, and “thousands” of music videos. (When CTV announced last fall it would rebrand talktv as MTV, MuchMusic’s parent, CHUM, said it would be vigorously protecting its genre. “Over the years, CTV’s channels have greatly benefited from CRTC support and genre protection. We’ll be intrigued to see how talktv can be morphed into an MTV brand and still remain a talk channel as licensed,” said CHUM Limited President and CEO Jay Switzer in a news release at that time. “We will be actively encouraging the CRTC to enforce both the spirit and letter of all talktv’s conditions of licence.”)
Then, CTV’s conventional stations will air blocks of programming six nights a week branded as “MTVonCTV.”
The multimedia attack continues with MTV Mobile, available on various cell providers and downloadable from the MTV Web site (www.mtv.ca), featuring MTV mobisodes, video, soundtrack ring-tones, and wallpaper.
It’s also launching a video on demand service with an “extensive line-up” of MTV hit programs.
Lastly, it will brand live events across Canada and at MTV’s new home in the Masonic Temple Concert Hall.
“A new chapter in Canadian media, employing multiple platforms and interactivity, begins. The future is now,” said Ivan Fecan, President and CEO of Bell Globemedia and CEO for CTV Inc.
Not only is CTV bringing the world of MTV to Canada, but it’s giving Canada to the world, the network says. “It’s a landmark day for Canada’s creative community and viewers from coast to coast,” said Susanne Boyce, CTV President of Programming and Chair of the CTV Media Group. “A culturally vibrant country like ours deserves its own MTV. Sharing Canada’s creative talent with the world through MTV’s worldwide network puts Canada on the world stage. It’s where we belong.”
MTV has seven new Canadian series in production, and six of them will be shown from the start. The work has created at least 150 jobs so far, the network says.
MTV has lined up 23 advertisers who have signed multiplatform sponsorship deals, including Bell Mobility, Coke, Pepsi, GM, Labatt, McDonalds, Telus, and Nokia.
The analog channel has committed to airing 71% Canadian content in primetime. It’s a joint venture by CTV and MTV, which now has 49 MTV-branded services in 167 countries.
MTV is resurrecting the brand in Canada after it failed to catch on when it launched in 2001 as a diginet in partnership with Craig Media.
