Whats up with MUCH nowadays?

[Test Pattern]

It seems MUCH isn't Music anymore nowadays. This week I noticed they are airing Married...with Children reruns and they even have Seinfeld scheduled for next week along with even more movies. This of course begs the question what is MUCH turning into Comedies, Movies or specialty programs. It seems Bell media has really screwed that network big time.

[InMontreal]

Simple. Bell has no idea what to do with the channel. They're keeping it around due to its resale value and history, but not making money.
Could have been worse and become a 23 hours per day TBBT rerun channel (or whatever minimal cancon quota they have).

Its french counterpart, MusiquePlus, its plug was pulled monday morning as it was renamed "Elle Fictions".

[lostjon]

MUCH has not been music for quite some time now. Even more so since March, when they cut their music video block down to Much Retro Lunch weekdays at 1:00pm.

Although one can argue that has been the case since they removed the "Music" label from their station ID for several years now and in 2013, once the Much environment was converted into studio space for CTV's original daytime productions.

Having said that, music videos are still around and more accessible than ever. Just not on the conventional music video channels that launched towards the late 20th century. Look elsewhere and nowadays, it's YouTube along with Stingray's 24/7 music video channels.

Perhaps the MUCH brand will live on in some form or another for nostalgia's sake, but more likely as a digital service. As a linear television channel, I'm not so sure now. A rebrand almost seems inevitable within the next few years, especially once its license is up for renewal. Frankly, I won't be surprised if the Much Retro Lunch block disappears sooner rather than later. And further down the road, Bell may choose to revoke its license as they continue to bleed viewers.

It was only a matter of time before MusiquePlus would sign off the air, though it was just the name that stayed on until this past Monday. Three years ago, their music video block was reduced to only three hours daily between 4:00am and 7:00am. The following year in 2017, music videos were retired from the schedule entirely, leaving reruns of original shows from V, alongside dramas, reality shows and movies. The same happened with CMT, as they dropped all music-related programming for the schedule and since then, has become an endless marathons of reruns.

The only thing keeping MUCH afloat nowadays are Comedy Central orignal shows, the best of which have since moved over from Comedy (soon to be CTV Comedy Channel), leaving the latter into nothing more than second-rate channel of reruns. Other than that, nothing special.