Well MTV Canada launched last night with their flagship and very self-indulgent show MTV LIVE, perhaps before I write this blog I should probably pretense the whole thing with the fact that YES, I did try to get into MTV as one of their hosts, and YES I would kill to be in the spot Daryn Jones' finds himself in right now. However, this is not a 'sour grapes' blog. Daryn is an excellent choice for this position, I know him personally and he's a talented and funny guy that deserves an opportunity such as this and is an excellent choice by CTV management to be the poster child for this network; a network that I have been following the progress of and very excited about since the announcement. Having said that I was sorely disappointed with yesterday's launch.



And let's tackle that aspect of it to start. Did anyone know that MTV was launching in Canada? I leave myself out of this mix cause I'm in the industry and tend to follow stuff like this, but to the average TV viewer or media consume that MTV is trying to attract did they actually go out there and find them to let them know that it was going to be launching? From talking to a few of my non-industry friends no one seemed to have a clue that CTV has purchased the rights to the MTV brand and was launching a whole network around it.



And speaking of the entire network, it's going to be an uphill battle considering that the station branding is MTV, being an acronym for MUSIC TV... but the problem is that CTV has flipped TALK TV to MTV Canada but are still regulated by a CRTC talk license. Therefore at this point in time they are not allowed to play music videos. Granted even MTV in the states has evolved beyond being a "music video" channel but at least they have the option!

And thus a talk format, MTV branded channel has emerged at the corner of Yonge and Davenport. The program that they have pushed into being their flagship show - MTV LIVE (a.k.a. Talk TV's CHAT ROOM) launched the station last night at 6pm EST... and what a disappointment is was. The fact that the entire first show focused around who their cast of characters are, the history of the Masonic Temple and how CTV has renovated the venue was not what an audience tuning into MTV wanted to see. And their choice of guests was astounding; Kevin Zegers from the film Transamerica, and music guest Jamie Cullum, a jazz singer.



Hey MTV, The Arctic fuckin' Monkey's were in Toronto! The band that eclipsed Oasis for fastest selling rock debut album! Oh and speaking of Oasis that's who they were touring with, and the tour happened to stop in of all places Toronto this past Monday night... perhaps having one of the biggest bands in the world on may have been a big better of a route to take for a nation wide launch? But hey, that's just my opinion...



And speaking of 'my opinion' hindsight is 20/20, so to end my little tirade or RANT as they've been called in the past, allow me to play "Fantasy Booker" on the MTV launch.

The name itself implies what the focus of the network should be ... take MTV and make it distinctly Canadian. Thus celebrate the history of the brand, implement what it has evolved into and then add a distinct Canadian flavour.



When the MTV launched in the summer of 1981, the first video played on the channel was Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles - the song was an indication of a dawning cultural and media revolution. Why would this not have been reflected upon in the launch of MTV Canada? I realize that they cannot play the video, but why not license the tune, cut a one minute video montage piece of MTV history with stereotypical representative images of the 25 years MTV has been on the airwaves and end with the haunting use of Dire Straights "i want my mtv" then cut to a live shot of a high profile Canadian band playing either Video Killed The Radio Star or Money for Nothing LIVE in the MTV studio... Billy Talent perhaps since they’re debut won album of the year at the 2005 Juno awars and they encompass their high anticipated sophomore disc is due to drop in late June) -- 2 minutes of the song is played, cut to Daryn Jones saying "This is MTV... Canada!"



The show should have also been peppered with testimonials from the very successful faces that got their start on MTV. Jon Stewart airs on the Comedy Network a CTV affiliate, Jon Stewart also hosted the first late night talk show on MTV. A testimonial from Jon Stewart stating how MTV gave him his start, and what the culture means (in his regular cynical style) would have given this launch the much needed star power that it deserved. Do the same for Carson Daily, Daisy Fuentes, & most importantly Canada's biggest export to MTV, Tom Green... actually IMHO Tom should have been flown in to be MTV LIVE's first guest!




Imagine... Billy Talent with a live performance of Video Killed The Radio star, testimonials from Carson Daily, Jon Stewart and Tom Green.... Perhaps I'm just living in fairly tale land, but If CTV had done this for the MTV Canada launch it would have made an impact and people would have been talking about it... which is hell of a lot more then they're doing now.

EJAY

MSN - bitetv@hotmail.com
EMAIL - jason@bitetv.ca