MusiquePlus Rebrands as Elle Fictions

[Bluenoser]

V Media has announced the replacement for MusiquePlus...Elle Fictions, station will launch on August 26th:

https://noovo.ca/articles/elle-ficti...des-le-26-aout (in French)

[InMontreal]

"Elle" being the magazine of the same name owned by Lagardère in France. Over there, they launched the specialty channel Elle Girl. back in 2016.

Only problem in Canada, Elle Québec magazine is published by Québecor, owner of TVA network (and Sun News Network)... What happened here is, Lagardère looked for a new publisher, and found Louis Morissette's company, already publisher of the Véro magazine. V Media is now allowed to use the brand "Elle".

[TvAntenna]

and it makes me wonder will MUCH be next? Probably not. But we'll never know and today I ask myself What does CMT stand for now since all country music video's were removed? It makes me wonder if Stingray will ever launch a Country Music station in the future? Who knows. Face it Canadian TV ain't good anymore.

[lostjon]

and it makes me wonder will MUCH be next? Probably not.

The MUCH brand will likely stick around for a little while longer, only because of the history it carries having been Canada's version of MTV in its early years. But nothing can be ruled out nowadays. Perhaps something is in the works with MUCH and we'll know in the next few weeks when Bell Media holds their annual upfronts. Ever since they cut back their music video blocks in the morning hours, MUCH has gradually transitioned more to a likeness of Comedy, even acquiring some original Comedy Central programs that would routinely air on Comedy. At the same time, this reduces the value of Comedy as a specialty channel, and boy, it has gone down quickly in recent years. Aside from The Daily Show and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, everything else is all marathons of sitcom reruns during the week and movie marathons on weekends. Notably, Comedy previously had the first-run Canadian rights to the IFC original series Brockmire for the first two seasons. As of season 3, it goes straight to Crave.

But we'll never know and today I ask myself What does CMT stand for now since all country music video's were removed?

CMT is just a brand nowadays, and honestly, it does not really stand for anything, similar to how MTV originally stood for Music Television, except they don't play music videos anymore like they used to... And the same goes for other long-running specialty channels like VH1, A&E and TLC, whose acronyms stood for content that they carried back in the earlier years, but really don't mean anything with what they are putting out now.

It makes me wonder if Stingray will ever launch a Country Music station in the future? Who knows.

There's a pretty good chance that this could happen a lot sooner than you think.

It was in summer 2016 that Stingray acquired four of the MUCH spin-off channels from Bell Media, all of which went on to be rebranded under the Stingray name, and revamped with themed music video blocks and weekly countdown shows almost one year later.

Last June, two new French channels were launched (Stingray Hits! and PalmarèsADISQ par Stingray) to fill the gaps left in the market following the changes made to MusiquePlus and MAX (which was rebranded from MusiMax in 2016) after they both dropped their music blocks in 2017.
That same year, CMT followed by dropping all music blocks from their schedule.

So if the last years are any indication, Stingray may already be working on plans to launch new services in the upcoming months, while continuing to add existing ones to maintain and expand their distribution across major TV providers not only in Canada but also worldwide. Many of the music video channels are already carried in places like Mexico, Europe and South America. In the past year alone, their new and existing services were added on Bell Fibe TV, Bell Aliant Fibe TV, Bell Satellite and Telus Optik TV, so needless to say, they accomplished quite a bit.

[InMontreal]

and it makes me wonder will MUCH be next?

Bell just removed the "Music" part from MuchMusic and said : Let's laugh at the subscribers with TBBT rerun marathons! That's what they're interested to. Screw history.

MusiquePlus has a different story, a different value on what it meant for the market, and local artists/groups were encouraged to produce a video. M+'s criterias were simple enough to give plenty rotation to a lot of artists and groups, ignored by radio stations. Many thanked MusiquePlus in the "thanks" section of their new album. M+ remained music-related, with some humor and sports, then near 2005, realityTV shows they picked were no longer about singers, and it went downhill from there. M+ brand will remain as 80s-90s-2000s era collective nostalgia, and V Media decided to rebrand rather than keep trying to schedule non-music shows on a music-branded channel.

I ask myself What does CMT stand for now since all country music video's were removed?

Corus is keeping CMT around as it keep making money with 5+ million remaining subscribers and low-cost shows. They're probably counting on Stingray to make an offer in the million$ and turn the programming around.
For me, CMT means NCN - The New Country Network, home of Shania Twain.

[lostjon]

Bell just removed the "Music" part from MuchMusic and said : Let's laugh at the subscribers with TBBT rerun marathons! That's what they're interested to. Screw history.

After CTVglobemedia's takeover of CHUM, there were two milestones in MuchMusic's history that came and went with absolutely little to no fanfare.

First in 2009, when MuchMusic was to mark 25 years on the air:

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/muchmusic...n-air-1.428457
https://www.thestar.com/entertainmen...s_its_age.html

And then in 2014, for Much's 30th anniversary (the "Music" part was removed at the start of the Bell Media era in 2012):
All they had to show for it was a half-hour special featuring archival footage and a day-long special countdown called "The 100 Greatest Videos Ever".

https://www.niagarathisweek.com/opinion-story/8430082-birthday-or-funeral-muchmusic-s-sad-30th-anniversary/
https://mikesbloggityblog.com/muchs-...f-its-history/

As Much approaches 35 years since its launch, who knows...