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by linda moss
If young TV viewers want a network that's all music, all the time, they shouldn't head to MTV: Music Television.
At least not according to officials at MuchMusic USA.
?The big complaint about MTV is that there is not enough music,? says Nora Ryan, MuchMusic's acting general manager. ?That is where we come in.?
Officials at MuchMusic, owned by Rainbow Media Holdings Inc., feel that MTV's move away from music videos to more general entertainment programming on pop culture and lifestyles opens up a real opportunity for a network such as theirs.
So MuchMusic is positioning itself as a ?viewer-driven? channel and antidote to MTV, which declined to comment last week. Later this month MuchMusic will premiere four new interactive shows, which will get some of their original programming directly through input from viewers via the Internet.
?Our viewers are able to become on-air personalities?and even contribute videos to the channel,? Ryan says.
?THE BIG COMPLAINT ABOUT MTV IS THAT THERE IS NOT ENOUGH MUSIC,? SAYS MUCHMUSIC'S NORA RYAN. ?THAT IS WHERE WE COME IN.?
Three of the shows, Tastemaker, Oven Fresh and Mixtape Masterpiece, will debut June 25 and will air as part of a daily strip from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The fourth series is a weekly show titled Random Intelligence.
?Everybody in television is trying to figure out interactive television,? Ryan says. ?This is interactivity from the point that integrates the viewers into the essence of the brand. This is music television from the viewer, not a company.?
In recent research MuchMusic found that 74% of the 18- to 34-year-olds it surveyed are interested in an all-music channel, one that will keep them on the cutting-edge of music.
The audience in MuchMusic's prime target demographic, 12 to 24 years old, is interested in what their peers have to say about music, or at least that's what Ryan is banking on with her new shows, starting out with Tastemaker.
With that music-video program viewers will in effect provide the talent for MuchMusic by becoming on-air music critics. Viewers can go online to upload video clips of themselves as potential tastemakers, voicing their views on music. Viewers can then vote online to decide which of these would-be tastemakers will appear on the TV. The audience can also engage in a lively exchange of opinions with tastemakers on MuchMusic's Web site.
In Oven Fresh, viewers vote online to determine which new music videos they want to see in rotation for a week on MuchMusic. Norman Schoenfeld, MuchMusic's VP-programming, says that the channel wants the music videos that it airs to be broad-based, not focusing on a particular music genre.
For its new series Mixtape Masterpiece, MuchMusic will post a theme or question online each week, asking viewers to put together a video mix that matches the theme. For a question like ?What music do you play while getting ready for a date?,? viewers would upload a video of them explaining their selections. Each day the show features a different viewer's mix.
The fourth new program, the weekly show Random Intelligence, has viewers seeking out and taking ?surveillance? videos of their favorite new music groups in their hometowns, helping to find and break new acts like talent scouts.
?We're asking our viewers to be our eyes and ears,? Schoenfeld says.
While MuchMusic officials compare their network to MTV, in many ways a more appropriate comparison would be MTV2, a largely digital service with 30 million subscribers. MTV2 plays a heavy rotation of music videos and has heavy interactive elements, including programs such as Control Freak, where viewers vote online in real time for one of three videos to air during the program.
Both MTV2 and MuchMusic say one of their major goals is to help cable operators drive digital tiers and sell high-speed cable modems. For example, MuchMusic's Web site will advise visitors that having high-speed Internet access will make interacting with the new series much easier.
MuchMusic, which recently closed carriage deals with Time Warner Cable and Adelphia Communications, has 14 million subscribers, many of them digital. With digital rollouts by MSOs accelerating, Ryan expects MuchMusic to reach 20 million homes within a year and to double its distribution in less than five years.
?We have a digital footprint now,? she says.
MuchMusic's new initiative also includes a promotion called ?Videolator,? through which viewers can themselves craft music videos for new artists. MuchMusic's Web site, gives viewers access to clips and graphics so they can edit and create a video for a new music group. The ?homemade? videos will be voted on by viewers, and the winners will air on MuchMusic.
Referring to all of MuchMusic's new programming, Schoenfeld says, ?This will support the network as a digital brand.?
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