Channel V, an institution of music television in Australia, will no longer operate after this Friday.
Speaking to theMusic, a Foxtel spokesperson said in a statement, ““We are making some changes to our music channels on Foxtel,” the statement read.
“You will start to see some changes to Channel [V] from this Saturday, February 27. From Friday, March 25 we will no longer use the Channel [V] brand and will change to V Hits and V Hits +2. V Hits features a line-up of music videos and countdowns, including the latest hits from Australia and around the world.”
There will be no changes to the MAX, CMC or Smooth channels.
Meanwhile Pedestrian has published an email from Executive Director of Television Brian Walsh procured from a now redundant staff member explaining the reason for the changes.
“Dear Colleagues,
As foreshadowed in my presentation yesterday, we are making changes across our organisation in order to be match fit in an increasingly competitive landscape. One area I discussed with you was channel rationalisation.
Over the past several years music clips have become ubiquitous with availability on services like YouTube, whilst linear broadcast audiences for music channels have been in steady decline. In order to run the Foxtel music services more efficiently we have decided to merge Channel [V] and [V] Hits.
The new service will be called [V] Hits and we will create a +2 of this channel. [V] Hits will continue to be a clip based channel with no long form content.
This change will begin to take place this Saturday, with the channel branding completed by late March.
I would like to thank the music team for their hard work and dedication in making Channel [V] an integral part of the Australian music landscape throughout the years.
I would also like to thank those team members leaving us today. You leave with our best wishes for your onward journey.
Brian Walsh & Stephen Baldwin”
Former and current V presenters have taken to Twitter following the news.
In 4 months time I’ll celebrate my 14th year at Channel V. That is nearly half my life and 1000s of hrs of live TV. I loved every moment
— Danny Clayton (@DannyjClayton) February 23, 2016
Channel V is closing on Friday. Must have been a tough call to make for MGMT. 20yrs of cutting edge TV, sad to see it go. — Osher Günsberg (@oshergunsberg) February 23, 2016
After 20 years of music television, @channelv says goodbye this friday..Thanks for the memories and the great times. I loved working wit you
— Jane Gazzo (@JaneGazzo) February 23, 2016
First seen on theMusic.com.
