MusiquePlus to close in August

[paterson]

Groupe V Media has announced that after more than 30 years on the air, MusiquePlus will close this August. A new channel targeting women will be launched to replace MusiquePlus.

For 20 years MP was the french version of MuchMusic with similar logos, presentation, style and format. The channel was originally 50% owned by the CHUM Group and carried some MuchMusic programming in addition to original content. Billed as the world's first french language music channel MP was carried by some cable companies across Canada. For the first year, 4 hours of programming per day was actually out of the MuchMusic studios in Toronto. All programming was later moved to Montreal when studios were completed.

Any band passing through Montreal would often end up on MP with interviews and performing live in studio. Many of these performances are still available on Youtube including David Bowie, Smashing Pumpkins, Kiss, Tragically Hip, Phil Collins, Bryan Adams and many more. All VJ's were bilingual and were quite good at english interviews with various artists. The station was responsible for launching many french language artists in Quebec and also introduced many english Canadian bands to the young francophone audience in Quebec.

Like other music channels MP had morphed into more general programming in recent years with very little music programming. During the last rating period the station had only 1% share of the viewing audience in Quebec.