When MuchMusic launched in 1984, audiences tuned in to see the latest music video. In 2003, the ‘latest video’ isn’t much of a draw. Audiences have fractured, and so have CHUM Television’s music offerings. The latest is MuchMoreRetro, an extension of MuchMoreMusic’s popular retro programming, set to launch in April.
Toronto-based CHUM launched its first two digital music stations in 2000. MuchVibe offers non-stop urban music. MuchLoud is exclusively alternative rock and punk. Both stations are slimmed-down offshoots of the mother ship, putting popular new videos in the respective genres in heavy rotation and repeating programming from MuchMusic. The stations maintained the hip, new, now look, feel and mandate of regular MuchMusic fare.
MuchVibe and MuchLoud are both in the red – but this is normal in the digital world, where, David Kines, VP and GM of all the Much’s, admits, audiences are counted ‘in the dozens.’ Digital stations have about 2% market penetration. Peanuts compared to the seven million homes that see the original MuchMusic, or the six million homes with MuchMoreMusic.
MuchMoreRetro is a slightly different animal, with an audience that could be very attractive to advertisers.
‘This is a natural outcropping of MuchMoreMusic,’ says Kines. ‘We programmed that station with our own vision and didn’t imagine how much feedback we’d get.
‘People are really, really into this. It’s a generational thing and it’s a real phenomenon.’
According to Kines, the station will be ‘a straight video wallpaper service,’ rotating the canon of music videos. That is, anything over five years old including The Police, Madonna, Nirvana, Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, Aerosmith and Canadian crooner Alanis Morissette.
‘This is something you can turn on and leave on at parties and clubs and stores. We’re trying not to disrupt it. We want to minimize the distractions as much as possible,’ Kines says.
Kines won’t comment on advertiser interest so far, but MuchMoreMusic has served a growing – and aging – group of older viewers since its launch in 1998, with 2002 being its best year on record. The station serves people who watch music videos regularly, but aren’t necessarily interested in the latest trends or the hot young stars that are currently the mainstay of MuchMusic.
CHUM is planning an understated launch for MuchMoreRetro. Sister television and radio stations will run ads produced in-house while CHUM considers collaborations with Bell-ExpressVu, which will carry the station. Says Kines: ‘We’re preaching to the converted. If we run one spot during MuchMoreMusic’s [retro show] Reloaded, that’s our audience.’
The question is whether the brand can sustain its many offshoots. Lynne Kilpatrick, president of Toronto branding and design firm Spencer Francey Peters, says that the MuchMusic brand is ‘funky and hip.’
‘I don’t know how that translates to a retro station. Can they bring funky and hip to retro tunes? If so, it should work fine. The danger is getting too far away from what you started as.’
‘I can understand why they’re doing this,’ says Theresa Treutler, SVP/broadcast investment director at Toronto’s Starcom Worldwide. ‘I guess there’s a need for them to continue to fulfil their mandate, and their success with MuchMoreMusic pointed the way to yet more retro videos. In principle, there’s a great audience for it.
‘That but you’re hearing in my voice is – hello! – it’s digital! If this were an analogue network, I would be very excited. But because it’s digital – and because it has such low penetration and hence a low viewership – it’s basically a whole lot of noise about not too much.’
