Emap Extends New Music Channel

Emap has announced plans to roll out its music channel, The Hits, following the signing of new carriage deals with Sky, NTL and Telewest.

The popular music channel was made available on Sky earlier this month and will be launched on NTL and Telewest in January 2003.

According to Emap, The Hits will be the UK’s first music TV channel available on all digital TV platforms. The new deals give the station access to an extra 3 million homes on cable, 6.3 million on Sky as well as the existing 1 million on Freeview.

The Hits, which launched on Freeview in October, faces stiff competition in an already crowded marketplace. However, Emap’s portfolio of music channels, which includes The Box, Smash Hits TV, Kiss TV, Q TV, Kerrang! TV and Magic has substantially eroded MTV’s dominance of the market.

Emap has pledged itself to an ongoing launch policy and expects to roll out a variety of its music channels across multiple digital platforms. Shirley Renwick, managing director of Emap Performance TV, commented: “The Hits is now the only music channel on all digital TV platforms, which is fantastic news for Emap TV.”

Earlier this month, in another example of the increasing proliferation of specialist music channels, Classic FM announced plans to launch a 24-hour television channel that will attempt to bring Vanessa Mae and the Opera Babes to the MTV generation (see Classic FM Launches Round The Clock Music Channel).

Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk

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