CMT (Canada)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Country Music Television (CMT)

Type	Cable television specialty channel
Country	Canada
Availability	National
Owner	Corus Entertainment (90% & managing partner) Viacom (10%)
Launch date	December 31, 1994
Past names	New Country Network (NCN)
Website	www.cmt.ca

CMT is a Canadian cable television specialty channel, which airs programming devoted to country music; in the form of music videos, award shows, concerts, television series and more. The channel is owned by Corus Entertainment (90%) and Viacom (10%).

[edit] History

Before the launch of CMT Canada, the American service, CMT was available in Canada since 1984. In 1994, the CRTC licensed a series of new Canadian speciality channels and among them was New Country Network (NCN) and therefore on June 6, 1994, the CRTC removed CMT from the list of eligible foreign services to broadcast in Canada because of its policy that foreign services cannot directly compete with Canadian services to protect Canadian heritage and culture. NCN launched on December 31, 1994 and on January 1, 1995 cable operaters were no longer allowed to offer CMT.

In retaliation, CMT launched a complaint under NAFTA and threatened to cease carriage of videos from Canadian artists.

Original logo of CMT. Used from 1996 to 2006

After months of negotiations, the matter was settled when it was announced that CMT will purchase a minority stake in the service. NCN relaunched as CMT Canada on October 31, 1996 with a similar format as the American service.