Justin Bieber’s Canadian fans have another reason to scream — they’ll keep seeing his videos on MuchMusic.
The station’s parent company, CTV, had asked the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to slash the amount of time it has to play videos on the channel in half, from 50 per cent of air time to 25 per cent, a request the CRTC turned down last week.
That means you’ll be able to continue watching as many Bieber, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry videos as you always have. Oh wait, what’s that? You don’t watch videos on TV?
It’s nice to think that CRTC’s decision will keep people glued to their TV sets, discovering new music like they did years ago, but we all know that’s not true. Synovate Research found, in a global survey that included Canada, that 46 per cent of people watch videos on their computer, while 16 per cent use their mobiles.
The CRTC denied the request for a number of reasons, mainly to do with licensing rules and competition, but if the decision were solely based on how people watch videos, they should have sided with CTV.
Artists such as OK GO, or Canada’s Jeremy Fisher, aren’t relying on MTV or Much to play their music. Fisher’s video for Cigarette has more than 2.3 million views — there’s no way that many eyeballs would have seen it if it only aired on TV.
Let MuchMusic do what it wants. I’ll be tuning into my computer, whether the telecom and music industries like it or not.
