PEDESTRIAN.TV was sent the official email sent around to now-redundant staff members by Head of Channels & Operations for the Foxtel Networks, Stephen Baldwin, and the Executive Director of Television, Brian Walsh overnight.
It blamed a steady decline in the way broadcast audiences consume music, naming YouTube as one of the biggest bugbears.
“Dear Colleagues,As foreshadowed in my presentation yesterday, we are making changes across our organisation in order to be match fit in an increasingly competitive landscape. One area I discussed with you was channel rationalisation.Over the past several years music clips have become ubiquitous with availability on services like YouTube, whilst linear broadcast audiences for music channels have been in steady decline. In order to run the Foxtel music services more efficiently we have decided to merge Channel [V] and [V] Hits.The new service will be called [V] Hits and we will create a +2 of this channel. [V] Hits will continue to be a clip based channel with no long form content.This change will begin to take place this Saturday, with the channel branding completed by late March.I would like to thank the music team for their hard work and dedication in making Channel [V] an integral part of the Australian music landscape throughout the years.I would also like to thank those team members leaving us today. You leave with our best wishes for your onward journey.Brian Walsh & Stephen Baldwin.”
The channel’s mainstays waxed lyrical too, and there are some absolute nuggets to be found in their Twitter musings:
Channel V is closing on Friday. Must have been a tough call to make for MGMT. 20yrs of cutting edge TV, sad to see it go.
— Osher Günsberg (@oshergunsberg) February 23, 2016
Decades of music, concerts, punters, rock-stars, laughs, gaffs, jokes, tears, smiles and mostly love went into a sensational place.
— Danny Clayton (@DannyjClayton) February 23, 2016
In 4 months time I’ll celebrate my 14th year at Channel V. That is nearly half my life and 1000s of hrs of live TV. I loved every moment
— Danny Clayton (@DannyjClayton) February 23, 2016
The dream team. I love every one of these humans like family. @yumichild @dannyclayton @mayajupiter @james_mathison pic.twitter.com/y0PH7MxSZT
— Osher Günsberg (@oshergunsberg) February 24, 2016
Sad to hear Channel [V] is no more!
Had SO MUCH fun, made friends for life, laughed ass off, still looking for ass— Yumi Stynes (@yumichild) February 24, 2016
Still have an abiding love for the band Slipknot
– from BDO 05,RIP @channelv https://t.co/Oc2PgiNB0q
— Yumi Stynes (@yumichild) February 24, 2016
Photo: Pages Digital.
