Ed the Sock predicts MuchMusic will soon be playing even less music

by Mark Teo

While MuchMusic was originally conceived as Canada’s off-kilter answer to MTV, since the early aughts, the station has continually received criticisms that, like its U.S. brethren, it barely even plays music. And in recent years, things have seemingly gotten worse for the station: At its 30-year mark, it underwent a round of job cuts. It briefly tried to recapture its mojo in 2010 by reviving The Wedge—this time, hosted by Damian Abraham—before quietly cancelling the show last year. It’s in such trouble that its former stars, like Master T, have formulated plans to right the Much ship.

Master T’s plan—in short, to hand the reins back to Moses Znaimer—never happened. And now, another classic Much personality is predicting more bad news for the station: Ed the Sock, the sock puppet played by Steven Kerzner and the star of Fromage, is predicting that the station will soon be playing even less music. (Yes, we know the punchline: “Wait, Much plays music?” Har har.)

Ed’s prediction comes due to last week’s CRTC ruling, in which the telecom regulation body announced the end of bundled cable packages. It’s something Canadian TV watchers have wanted for years: Cable packages often came packed with unwanted specialty channels; some consumers felt these channels were forced upon them. On the other hand, the pick-and-pay model could spell death for Canadian independent (and specialty) broadcasters, especially because the CRTC relaxed quotas for Candian content. By a lot: For instance, the quota was dropped from 55 per cent to zero per cent for local networks.

This is where Ed steps in. In a video created for the Huffington Post—in which he gave a two-minute breakdown of what the ruling could mean for the industry—he notes that Canadian specialty channels may disappear, resulting in TV that’s akin to, in his words, a food court filled with nothing but Subway.

Watch his take on the CRTC ruling below.