Fuse (TV channel)
American national television network
Fuse is an American television channel owned by Fuse Media, LLC.
The channel was originally launched in 1994 as MuchMusic USA, a localized version of the Canadian cable channel MuchMusic, and was dedicated to music-based programming; the channel relaunched under its current branding in 2003. Fuse was acquired by SiTV Media in 2014 and, after merging with the Latino-oriented NuvoTV in 2015, would shift its focus to general entertainment and lifestyle programming targeting multicultural young adults.
By February 2015, Fuse was available to approximately 71,491,000 pay television households (61.4% of households with television) in the United States. With a number of cable operators discontinuing their carriage in the years since, the channel currently has an availability of around 34 million pay television households as of 2022.
History
As MuchMusic USA
The channel originally launched on July 1, 1994, as MuchMusic USA; it was founded as a joint venture between Rainbow Media (currently known as AMC Networks), a division of New York–based Cablevision and Toronto-based CHUM Limited. CHUM would later sell its 50% stake in the network to Cablevision in 2000, but allowed the continued use of the "MuchMusic" name under a brand licensing agreement.
The channel suffered from a lack of carriage; outside of Cablevision's own systems and others (such as the now-defunct PrimeStar), not many providers carried the network. Beginning in 1996, Rainbow began an effort to add U.S-produced original programming and music video blocks to the network. Certain Cablevision systems in major markets also experimented with locally oriented music countdown shows, typically produced in cooperation with a local radio station (such as Cablevision's Boston system producing the MuchMusic Boston Countdown together with radio station WFNX).
In 1998, the network also began to be included in a sub-unit of Rainbow focused upon live pay-per-view events taking place at New York's world-famous Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden (both also owned by Cablevision's founding Dolan family), Radio City Networks.
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