Fuse TV

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (March 2009)

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

Fuse
Launched	May 19, 2003
Owned by	Madison Square Garden, L.P. (Cablevision)
Slogan	where music lives
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	Channel 339 Channel 1339 (VOD)
Dish Network	Channel 158
Cable
Comcast	Varies
Verizon FiOS	716 HD (1080i), 216 SD
Others	check with provider

Fuse TV is a music-oriented television channel owned by Cablevision through its subsidiary Madison Square Garden, L.P.. The network began as MuchUSA, in 1994 simulcasting Canada's MuchMusic as a partnership between its current owners Cablevision and MuchMusic's then owner CHUM Limited. The beginning of the end of MuchUSA would begin in spring of 2001 when CHUM sold their half of the network to Cablevision.

History

Originally, the network was a full simulcast of MuchMusic Canada with the exception of localized commercials co-owned by Cablevision and CHUM Limited.

After CHUM Limited sold its half of the network to Cablevision, it allowed Cablevision to continue running MuchMusic programming and to use the MuchMusic name under a license agreement.

However, in the spring of 2001, Cablevision began airing its own programming on the network under the name "MMUSA" or "MuchMusic USA." Initially, the programming was a locally aired block of music videos with MuchMusic Canada bumpers between commercials.

By June of 2001, new localized programming began airing under the "MMUSA" name. This programming was very low budget, and consisted of music videos with color-coded crop bars on the top and bottom of the screen for each show. The non-music-video parts of the show were viewer-submitted videos from the website mmusa.tv, which was highly promoted on the network.

As the year went on, more and more localized programming began airing replacing the MuchMusic Canada programming. By December 2002, the network had reduced its Canadian programming to only 1 hour a day, with RapCity being the last MuchMusic Canada program to air. Later, the network would have entirely localized "MMUSA" programming.

In early 2003, CHUM revoked Cablevision's license to use the MuchMusic and MMUSA name and everything else having to do with it. By April, the network had announced that it would be renamed "Fuse".^[1]

On May 19, 2003, just before 6 a.m. Eastern Time, the network aired its final video as MMUSA: New Found Glory's "My Friends Over You". After the video ended, the network went to a commercial break, then returned as Fuse, and with newly licensed boundary-pushing television shows like the cult favorite kung-fu-meets-hip-hop-music mash-up known as "Kung Faux."

In its early days, Fuse programming was very music intensive. The network indirectly bashed MTV with a slogan touting Fuse as the channel "where the music went." Fuse's advertising in this period, by New York-based Amalgamated, generated controversy both through its more direct criticism of MTV (Viacom, corporate owner of MTV, protested when a Fuse billboard appeared across from its headquarters featuring Sally Struthers' plea to "save the music video") and through its bold parodies - particularly that of the iPod ad campaign.^[2][3][4][5] In late 2005, Fuse had a week of end-to-end music videos, sponsored by Snapple.

By 2007, Fuse's programming had shifted to include some of the non-music-video programming that it had previously mocked MTV for running. Nonetheless, in 2009, Fuse changed its slogan to "where music lives."

Programs

^{[6] [7]}

• All Nighter
• Beef
• Best of Steven's Untitled Rock Show
• d'Fused
• Distortion
• Hit List
• Later With Jools Holland
• Let it Rock
• Live From Abbey Road
• Loaded
• No. 1 Countdown
• Hip Hop Shop
• Stevens Untitled Warped Show
• The Chronicles
• The Fuse 20
• The Pop Show
• Video Yearbook

Current hosts

• Steven Smith hosts alternative music show Distortion. Until recently, he hosted Steven's Untitled Rock Show and The Weekly Riff.
• Touré hosts Hip Hop Shop.
• Juliya Chernetsky hosts Let It Rock.
• Allison Hagendorf hosts The Pop Show.
• Jared Cotter from American Idol hosts No. 1 Countdown: Pop.
• Dee Vazquez hosts No. 1 Countdown: Hip Hop.
• Danielle Fishel hosts The Fuse 20.

References

See also

• List of Fuse shows

External links

• Official website