Launched September 4, 2003 Picture format 480i (SDTV) Broadcast area National Founded 2003 | Owned by Stingray Digital Country Canada Headquarters Toronto, Canada Owner Stingray Digital | |
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Slogan Great Music Never Goes Out of Style Motto Great Music Never Goes Out of Style | ||
Lady venom on stingray retro
Stingray Retro (formerly MuchMoreRetro and MuchRetro) is a Canadian English language Category B music video specialty channel owned by Stingray Digital. MuchRetro is a commercial-free service that broadcasts music videos from the 1980s to the early 2000s.
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History
In November 2000, CHUM Limited was granted approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a national English language Category 2 specialty television service called MuchMore ClassicVideo, described as "consisting of classic (songs more than five years old) music videos and related programs, including music and pop news or commentaries, interviews, concerts, profiles and specials, as well as music-related feature films and series or programs."
The channel was launched on September 4, 2003 as a commercial-free service under the name MuchMoreRetro, a spin-off of the CHUM-owned channel, then known as MuchMoreMusic.
In July 2006, Bell Globemedia (later called CTVglobemedia) announced that it would purchase CHUM for an estimated $1.7 billion CAD, included in the sale was MuchMoreRetro. The sale was subject to CRTC approval and was approved in June 2007, with the transaction completed on June 22, 2007.
After the channel's initial launch in 2003, it began to introduce commercials throughout its schedule until August 31, 2009 when the channel, along with the other CTVglobemedia-owned digital music channels, switched back to a commercial-free format.
On September 10, 2010, BCE (a minority shareholder in CTVglobemedia) announced that it planned to acquire 100% interest in CTVglobemedia for a total debt and equity transaction cost of $3.2 billion CAD. The deal which required CRTC approval, was approved on March 7, 2011 and closed on April 1 of that year, on which CTVglobemedia was rebranded Bell Media.
On November 1, 2013, MuchMoreRetro was re-launched as MuchRetro; the rebranding marked the first time the channel had been specifically aligned with the flagship MuchMusic brand, as the channel was previously aligned as a spin-off of MuchMore (which was rebranded as M3 in September 2013).
On June 21, 2016, it was announced that Stingray Digital would acquire MuchVibe, MuchLoud, MuchRetro, and Juicebox from Bell Media. The acquisition closed on September 16, 2016 with a plan to rebrand the channel as Stingray Retro shortly.