MTV disappears from Canadian airwaves Thursday, but in its a wake, the next step in interactive music television will follow.
CHUM Television is launching PunchMuch, the first fully automated all-request music video station, to fill the void left by MTV network in Canada.
PunchMuch is a cross between Canadian Idol and a jukebox, allowing viewers to request videos by sending text messages on their cellphones to the station, according to David Kines, vice-president of music and youth channels at CHUM television.
"No one has ever done this before," Mr. Kines said.
MTV Canada and MTV2 are being rebranded after CHUM Television, Canada's largest owner of specialty music stations, bought out a smaller network, Craig Media Inc., last December.
Craig Media owned the broadcast rights to MTV in Canada. But when CHUM, the mother-company of MuchMusic and all its spin-offs, bought the company, MTV opted not to continue its broadcasting contract in Canada, according to Rob Hooper, spokesman for MTV International.
"We are exercising our right to exit our agreement with Craig Media and will cease to broadcast MTV and MTV2 as of Thursday," Mr. Hooper said in an e-mail from London, England. "We are committed to Canadian audiences for the long-term, however, and will announce further plans in the coming weeks."
Under the agreement, CHUM must pay a $10-million licence fee to MTV covering the remaining 2 1/2-year contract with Craig Media.
The shake-up between the networks is just one of many dating back to the 1980s when MTV reportedly had concerns about the content similarities between its channels and MuchMusic. More recently, CHUM filed an appeal with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, and Craig Media was forced to alter its MTV Canada format.
MTV and CHUM mutually agreed on the June 30 switchover date, Mr. Hooper said. MTV will continue its presence in Canada through syndicated shows such as Punk'd, the Newlyweds, and the Osbournes, which air on several networks, including MuchMusic.
Mr. Hooper would not elaborate on MTV's future plans. He did say in an interview earlier this month that MTV has other long-term ambitions "beyond syndication" in Canada, but that he was not at liberty to discuss them.
CHUM is rebranding both MTV Canada and MTV2 as Razer and PunchMuch, respectively.
Razer is a youth lifestyle station aimed at audiences aged 12 to 24. It features some newer shows, like World Famous for Dicking Around and Cops, Cars and Superstars: Bullrun, and some classic teen-oriented shows such as Dawson's Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Razer launches Thursday at 9 p.m. with the television premiere of 8 Mile, starring Eminem and Brittany Murphy. But by far the more interesting experiment coming out of MTV's disappearance from Canadian airwaves is PunchMuch, Mr. Kines said.
PunchMuch's screen will look something like CTV Newsnet, with several different feature running at once. The videos will dominate the screen, but there will also be the ticker with video titles and the audience will also be able to give "shout out" text-messages to their friends, Mr. Kines said.
With its enriched screen, a ticker list will scroll with the names of videos that viewers can request, while other videos play. The list of songs will be updated based on what is being requested, he said. Viewers who want to request a song, can do so by text-messaging the network on their cellphone. Each request is considered a premium text message and will cost roughly 50 cents, Mr. Kines said.
The videos aired are determined by the amount of votes they get, he added.
"We thought rather than run what was there before, we would give the audience control and do something that we've never done before," Mr. Kines said.
