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Headline, Industry News
CRTC denies AUX-TV right to air more music videos
Thursday February 17th 2011Do you want your AUX TV?
Three months after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission told MuchMusic it can’t air fewer music videos than it already does, the same federal agency has denied a request to play more of them on a cable music channel that’s become a launching pad for dozens of independent Canadian artists.
The CRTC ruled last week that AUX TV, a specialty music channel owned by GlassBox Television, can’t allow music videos to account for more than 35 per cent of its broadcast content under its current licence because that could make AUX “directly competitive” with MuchMusic.
GlassBox launched AUX in October 2009 as a source for independent and largely Canadian indie rock and hip-hop musicians. Its roster of videos comes from a who’s who of the country’s alternative music scenes, from Toronto’s Crystal Castles and Calgary’s Chad VanGaalen to Montreal’s Wolf Parade and Halifax’s Classified — namely, artists who’d be lucky to crack MuchMusic’s Top-40-heavy rotation.
“The reason we launched this whole channel is because the Canadian music scene has come of age,” said Raja Khanna, GlassBox’s co-CEO and founder of AUX, pointing to Arcade Fire’s Grammy win on Sunday for album of the year. “We have incredible breadth and depth of music in this country and it’s not getting the spotlight shone on it like it should.”
The CRTC said that because AUX has only the specialty licence, allowing it to broadcast as much music as MuchMusic would “call into question” the CRTC’s licensing framework, “which requires services to be complementary and not directly compete with one another.”
Khanna said the Mississauga, Ont.-based company was “surprised that the CRTC wouldn’t allow us the flexibility to program a genre that clearly focuses on an area our competitors wouldn’t consider a priority.”
Khanna was referring to a CRTC ruling from November, when the agency denied a similar request from CTV to slice in half the time allotted to music videos on MuchMusic.
Currently, MuchMusic’s prime-time schedule is littered with American reality programming and the occasional music-themed Canadian show. The music videos the station airs are broadcast in the morning, for an hour or two each afternoon, and across a number of genre-specific shows airing late at night.
In its filing, MuchMusic argued that because music videos have proliferated on the Internet, they “no longer distinguish the (channel),” the station’s television ratings have decreased and fewer videos are being made.
MuchMusic’s application prompted a host of arts groups to protest that the channel’s “commitment to music is being eroded,” a factor that the CRTC included in its decision to deny the application.
Khanna said it “doesn’t make any sense” to prevent his channel from picking up MuchMusic’s slack.
“For emerging artists, where’s the stepping stone between uploading your video to the Internet, and getting to be the precious few that get onto a channel like Much? That’s the niche we’re trying to fill, helping artists develop, choosing the best of the ones from YouTube, for example, and supporting them on the air.
“Philosophically, here is a channel that is investing in Canadian content and emerging Canadian artists,” said Khanna. “These are things that speak directly to the Broadcasting Act, which should be the light under which all of this is reviewed.”
The CRTC said GlassBox can pursue the matter further once AUX’s licence is up for renewal in August.
Source: Vancouver Sun
Headline, Industry News
CRTC denies AUX-TV right to air more music videos
Thursday February 17th 2011Do you want your AUX TV?
Three months after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission told MuchMusic it can’t air fewer music videos than it already does, the same federal agency has denied a request to play more of them on a cable music channel that’s become a launching pad for dozens of independent Canadian artists.
The CRTC ruled last week that AUX TV, a specialty music channel owned by GlassBox Television, can’t allow music videos to account for more than 35 per cent of its broadcast content under its current licence because that could make AUX “directly competitive” with MuchMusic.
GlassBox launched AUX in October 2009 as a source for independent and largely Canadian indie rock and hip-hop musicians. Its roster of videos comes from a who’s who of the country’s alternative music scenes, from Toronto’s Crystal Castles and Calgary’s Chad VanGaalen to Montreal’s Wolf Parade and Halifax’s Classified — namely, artists who’d be lucky to crack MuchMusic’s Top-40-heavy rotation.
“The reason we launched this whole channel is because the Canadian music scene has come of age,” said Raja Khanna, GlassBox’s co-CEO and founder of AUX, pointing to Arcade Fire’s Grammy win on Sunday for album of the year. “We have incredible breadth and depth of music in this country and it’s not getting the spotlight shone on it like it should.”
The CRTC said that because AUX has only the specialty licence, allowing it to broadcast as much music as MuchMusic would “call into question” the CRTC’s licensing framework, “which requires services to be complementary and not directly compete with one another.”
Khanna said the Mississauga, Ont.-based company was “surprised that the CRTC wouldn’t allow us the flexibility to program a genre that clearly focuses on an area our competitors wouldn’t consider a priority.”
Khanna was referring to a CRTC ruling from November, when the agency denied a similar request from CTV to slice in half the time allotted to music videos on MuchMusic.
Currently, MuchMusic’s prime-time schedule is littered with American reality programming and the occasional music-themed Canadian show. The music videos the station airs are broadcast in the morning, for an hour or two each afternoon, and across a number of genre-specific shows airing late at night.
In its filing, MuchMusic argued that because music videos have proliferated on the Internet, they “no longer distinguish the (channel),” the station’s television ratings have decreased and fewer videos are being made.
MuchMusic’s application prompted a host of arts groups to protest that the channel’s “commitment to music is being eroded,” a factor that the CRTC included in its decision to deny the application.
Khanna said it “doesn’t make any sense” to prevent his channel from picking up MuchMusic’s slack.
“For emerging artists, where’s the stepping stone between uploading your video to the Internet, and getting to be the precious few that get onto a channel like Much? That’s the niche we’re trying to fill, helping artists develop, choosing the best of the ones from YouTube, for example, and supporting them on the air.
“Philosophically, here is a channel that is investing in Canadian content and emerging Canadian artists,” said Khanna. “These are things that speak directly to the Broadcasting Act, which should be the light under which all of this is reviewed.”
The CRTC said GlassBox can pursue the matter further once AUX’s licence is up for renewal in August.
Source: Vancouver Sun
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Headline, Industry News
CRTC denies AUX-TV right to air more music videos
Thursday February 17th 2011Do you want your AUX TV?
Three months after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission told MuchMusic it can’t air fewer music videos than it already does, the same federal agency has denied a request to play more of them on a cable music channel that’s become a launching pad for dozens of independent Canadian artists.
The CRTC ruled last week that AUX TV, a specialty music channel owned by GlassBox Television, can’t allow music videos to account for more than 35 per cent of its broadcast content under its current licence because that could make AUX “directly competitive” with MuchMusic.
GlassBox launched AUX in October 2009 as a source for independent and largely Canadian indie rock and hip-hop musicians. Its roster of videos comes from a who’s who of the country’s alternative music scenes, from Toronto’s Crystal Castles and Calgary’s Chad VanGaalen to Montreal’s Wolf Parade and Halifax’s Classified — namely, artists who’d be lucky to crack MuchMusic’s Top-40-heavy rotation.
“The reason we launched this whole channel is because the Canadian music scene has come of age,” said Raja Khanna, GlassBox’s co-CEO and founder of AUX, pointing to Arcade Fire’s Grammy win on Sunday for album of the year. “We have incredible breadth and depth of music in this country and it’s not getting the spotlight shone on it like it should.”
The CRTC said that because AUX has only the specialty licence, allowing it to broadcast as much music as MuchMusic would “call into question” the CRTC’s licensing framework, “which requires services to be complementary and not directly compete with one another.”
Khanna said the Mississauga, Ont.-based company was “surprised that the CRTC wouldn’t allow us the flexibility to program a genre that clearly focuses on an area our competitors wouldn’t consider a priority.”
Khanna was referring to a CRTC ruling from November, when the agency denied a similar request from CTV to slice in half the time allotted to music videos on MuchMusic.
Currently, MuchMusic’s prime-time schedule is littered with American reality programming and the occasional music-themed Canadian show. The music videos the station airs are broadcast in the morning, for an hour or two each afternoon, and across a number of genre-specific shows airing late at night.
In its filing, MuchMusic argued that because music videos have proliferated on the Internet, they “no longer distinguish the (channel),” the station’s television ratings have decreased and fewer videos are being made.
MuchMusic’s application prompted a host of arts groups to protest that the channel’s “commitment to music is being eroded,” a factor that the CRTC included in its decision to deny the application.
Khanna said it “doesn’t make any sense” to prevent his channel from picking up MuchMusic’s slack.
“For emerging artists, where’s the stepping stone between uploading your video to the Internet, and getting to be the precious few that get onto a channel like Much? That’s the niche we’re trying to fill, helping artists develop, choosing the best of the ones from YouTube, for example, and supporting them on the air.
“Philosophically, here is a channel that is investing in Canadian content and emerging Canadian artists,” said Khanna. “These are things that speak directly to the Broadcasting Act, which should be the light under which all of this is reviewed.”
The CRTC said GlassBox can pursue the matter further once AUX’s licence is up for renewal in August.
Source: Vancouver Sun
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