Scuzz
Ownership | |
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Owner | Sony Pictures Television |
Scuzz is a British 24-hour rock music television channel owned and operated by Sony Pictures Television. It launched on 17 April 2003 and has gone on to be the highest-rated rock TV station on satellite platform Sky which is available in over 12 million homes[1] in the UK and Ireland.
The channel broadcasts mainstream rock, pop-punk, and metal, with unsigned and lesser known bands featuring in the late night show 'New Noise'. Scuzz tends to play a broader selection of music videos compared with the other British rock channels MTV Rocks and Kerrang! although K! and Scuzz do share quite a few songs. The channel has been known to break many UK artists including Enter Shikari, Young Guns, You Me At Six, Bullet For My Valentine, Lower Than Atlantis and more recently Milk Teeth, Creeper. International bands are often first broadcast on Scuzz TV, the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, Sleeping With Sirens, Pierce The Veil, Letlive, All Time Low and Paramore all first appeared on Scuzz.
History
The channel shows many exclusive music videos for their first time. Scuzz often plays live concerts including Slipknot, Korn, Devildriver and 36 Crazyfists. Scuzz has band 'Take-Overs' where artists present music video shows, as well as interviews with artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Deftones, Machine Head, Kiss to smaller bands that are deemed up and coming.
They show various interview shows including 'On Record', 'Scuzz Meets', 'The Lowdown' which centers around British rock festival 'Download Festival', and more recently a series called Access All Areas. Scuzz TV presenters include Sophie K, Daniel P Carter, Jon Mahon, and Matt Stocks.
Scuzz has a presence at the majority of the UK and some international rock festivals. Scuzz's current festival partnerships include:
- Download Festival
- Sonisphere
- Bloodstock Open Air
- Hevy Festival
- Slam Dunk Festival
- Vans Warped Tour USA
- Vans Warped Tour UK
- Mayhem Festival USA
- Hellfest France
- 2000 Trees Festival
Scuzz is available 24 hours a day on Sky channel 366. It is owned by Sony Pictures Television.
On Monday 17 November 2008, CSC Media Group launched a +1 timeshift of Scuzz, Scuzz +1. It was available 24 hours a day on Sky channel 375. This was CSC Media Group's third music timeshift, after launching Flaunt +1 and Bliss +1 earlier in the year, although both have since been closed down and replaced, with PopGirl +1 and allowing AnimeCentral to go 24 hours respectively.
On Friday 21 November 2008, just four days after Scuzz +1 officially launched, it was closed down as the EPG slot had been bought by news channel NHK World TV.
On Tuesday 29 September 2009, Scuzz was removed from Freesat channel 502 and replaced with sister channel Flava.[2] On 3 November 2010, NME TV was replaced with Scuzz on Freesat channel 503.[3] On 15 July 2013, Scuzz was replaced by Chart Show Dance on Freesat channel 503.[4] It returned to Freesat in August 2017, replacing Chart Show Hits just as they had replaced Scuzz four years earlier, but was removed along with Chart Show TV, Starz TV and Tiny Pop +1 on July 31, 2018.
On 5 June 2013, Scuzz swapped positions with Flava on Sky. The channel moved from 374 to 367 (to sit next to Kerrang!), while Flava moved from 367 to 374.
On-air music video blocks/shows
- Back2Back
- Rock All Stars
- New Noise
- Antiques Rock Show
- A**-Kicking Metal
- #Rockbox (interactive block)
- Shredtime Stories
Virgin Media removal
On 6 November 2007, Scuzz along with Bliss and Flaunt, were removed from Virgin Media's ex-NTL platform as a deal with Chart Show Channels could not be made to make the channels available to their ex-Telewest platform.
Animax Movie Nights
On 15 March 2015, Scuzz launched Animax Movie Nights,[5] a block, provided by Sony Pictures Television under the Animax brand, that airs anime films streamed on SVOD in the UK and Ireland by the British version of Animax, which launched on 24 October 2015,[6] on Thursday nights.
On-air identity
Scuzz was given a new look and revamp on 1 April 2006. Replacing the old black and white logo and song titles to a blue, smokey look. After the revamp the channel has begun to air more special, dedicated shows, such as a live performance from the metalcore group Trivium, and more recently, a weekend devoted to Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames.
As of at least 31 December 2007, Scuzz was once again revamped; being given a much more industrial style look.
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The original Scuzz logo (17 April 2003 – 1 April 2006)
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The second Scuzz logo (1 April 2006 – 31 December 2007)
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The third Scuzz logo (1 January 2008 – 12 May 2011)
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The fourth Scuzz logo (13 May 2011–1 July 2014)
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The fifth and current Scuzz logo (1 July 2014–present)
References
- ^ Plunkett, John (29 July 2015). "Sky profits rise as it passes 12 million UK and Ireland customers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
- ^ "Flava replaces Scuzz on Freesat". The Airwaves. 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011.
- ^ "Scuzz To Return To Freesat This Week". Join Freesat. 1 November 2010.
- ^ "Update Scan". Join Freesat. 15 July 2013.
- ^ "Scuzz TV launch Animax Movie Nights". UK Anime Network. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ http://www.uk-anime.net/newsitem/Animax_UK_now_online.html