After 20 years as a staple of the Australian music scene, Australian cable music channel Channel V Australia will cease operations this week. The news comes amid changes to the way Foxtel’s dedicated music channels are organised.

In an official statement given to The Music, a Foxtel spokesperson confirmed the cable organisation will be discontinuing the Channel V brand. Channel V will merge with Channel V Hits and will become a solely music video-based channel.

“We are making some changes to our music channels on Foxtel,” the spokesperson said. “You will start to see some changes to Channel [V] from this Saturday, February 27. From Friday, March 25 we will no longer use the Channel [V] brand and will change to V Hits and V Hits +2.”

“V Hits features a line-up of music videos and countdowns, including the latest hits from Australia and around the world.” The spokesperson confirmed there won’t be any changes to Foxtel’s other music channels – MAX, CMC, and Smooth.

In a leaked internal email published by Pedestrian.tv, Foxtel’s Executive Director of Television, Brian Walsh, said the changes are part of a bid to keep the organisation “match fit in an increasingly competitive landscape”.

“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,” he wrote.

“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.”

Channel V presenters Danny Clayton and Osher Günsberg have taken to social media to hail the iconic music channel where they got their start. But whilst Clayton insists he’ll be celebrating his 14th year at Channel V in four months’ time, other staffers do appear to have been let go.

In the leaked email, Walsh thanked “those team members leaving us today”, adding, “You leave with our best wishes for your onward journey”. Meanwhile, Josh Newman, who previously worked in Channel V’s digital video department, has been live-tweeting his redundancy.

Tone Deaf have reached out to Foxtel for official comment.

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