[WillPS]

I wonder if Bauer will shop the brand licenses about a bit, maybe to a FAST provider. Had Chart Show Retro worked out for That's you'd have thought they'd be making enquiries.

It's always struck me as strange that Kerrang went unchallenged all this time - the closest competitors were Scuzz and MTV Rocks but the former was way heavier and the latter leaned indie most of the time.

[James2001]

Not as if That's are the best company to hanlde any sort of brand anyway, they're a company who don't seem to be able to stick to anything for longer than 5 minutes.

[Brekkie]

Have to wonder if either side of the agreement were keen to keep going. If they were they probably have opposing views on what that licencing fee should be moving forward.

I think if either side wanted something to continue it likely would have happened - could have been a useful thing for Bauer to put on their Rayo app to give that a boost at launch.

[nwtv2003]

I would say Scuzz was the closest near rival to Kerrang back in the early 2000s. MTV2 as I remember was indie like you say and was also noteworthy for having Zane Lowe as main presenter for a while.

Talking of the Bauer brands, but I always thought Q was the best music channel of the lot back then, but it was probably the least watched, as it became FHM part time before closing down altogether. The Amp was a decent rival to Q, but again that bit the dust very quickly.

It’s worth noting that today is the 25th anniversary of the launch of MTV Base, MTV Extra (which became MTV Hits) and VH1 Classic. MTV2/M2 had already been running since Sky Digital started in the previous October. Unlike M2, the new spin offs were widely promoted at this time.

[James2001]

Channel 4 could probably have continued the channels with new names (probably either 4music or Box related) if they really wanted to, presumably they didn't consider it worth it.

[WillPS]

I would say Scuzz was the closest near rival to Kerrang back in the early 2000s.

Yes, the original version (owned by Sky) was pretty close, but by the time CSC took over they were certainly more metal than pop punk. The original Scuzz logo was almost an Aldi-style clone of Kerrang's too.

[James2001]

It’s worth noting that today is the 25th anniversary of the launch of MTV Base, MTV Extra (which became MTV Hits) and VH1 Classic.

MTV Extra began with various different programmes, but after a while just became unthemed 24/7 videos.

In fact it's interesting that long blocks of generic/unthemed music video strands haven't really been a thing for years on most channels, there's usually some sort of theme or chart going on these days, with the generic videos usually just being short blocks between them.

[Omnipresent]

I would hazard a guess that the licence fee payable to Bauer was based on a percentage of revenues so whether it was worth continuing for both sides fundamentally depends on advertising revenue performance.

[Division2023]

Talking of the Bauer brands, but I always thought Q was the best music channel of the lot back then, but it was probably the least watched, as it became FHM part time before closing down altogether.

Q however did regain its full hours after FHM was axed when Channel 4 became involved from autumn 2007, continuing for another five years until it closed down completely in summer 2012.

[Brekkie]

Channel 4 could probably have continued the channels with new names (probably either 4music or Box related) if they really wanted to, presumably they didn't consider it worth it.

I've seen very little mourning of the loss of 4Music but it's very clear The Box is a much loved brand which would have been the way to go if they continued. It's quite clear Kerrang especially, but also Kiss and Magic, will be missed too but harder to say whether the love there is for the channel or for the brand. A bit of both I suspect.