The company that owns MuchMusic has decided to shut down MTV Canada and MTV2. Last year CHUM Limited bought Craig Media, then the parent company of the two Canadian MTV channels. No word yet on what CHUM will do with the channels.
MTV issued a statement saying that they will announce their new plans in the coming weeks. Under the agreement with Craig Media, CHUM must pay a $10 million licence fee to MTV covering the remaining 2 ? years of the contract.
Some insiders say this event is just another example of the bad blood between CHUM and MTV. In 2001 Craig Media signed a deal to bring MTV to Canada which CHUM appealed to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. In the 1980s MTV accused CityTV founder Moses Znaimer, who developed MuchMusic, of copying them.
MTV Networks International vice-president Rob Hooper did not specify if the company would come back to Canada in the future.
