Scuzz

Scuzz was a British 24-hour rock and metal music television channel owned and operated by Sony Pictures Television. It was launched on 17 April 2003 and went on to be the highest-rated rock TV station on the Sky satellite platform, available in over 12 million homes[1] in the UK and Ireland. The channel closed on 15 November 2018.

This article is about the television channel. For the Marvel Comics character, see DP 7.

Scuzz
SloganWe Play Rock Music
Programming
Picture format16:9, 576i (SDTV)
Ownership
OwnerSony Pictures Television
History
Launched17 April 2003
Closed15 November 2018
Availability
(at time of closure)
Cable
WightFibreChannel 54
Satellite
SkyChannel 366
Astra 2F11307 V 27500 2/3

The channel broadcast mainstream rock, pop-punk, and metal, with unsigned and lesser known bands featuring in the late night show 'New Noise'. Scuzz tended to play a broader selection of music videos compared with the other British rock channels MTV Rocks and Kerrang! although K! and Scuzz did share quite a few songs. The channel was known to break many UK artists including Enter Shikari, Young Guns, You Me At Six, Bullet For My Valentine, Lower Than Atlantis and later Milk Teeth and Creeper. International bands were 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 UK TV on Scuzz.

History

The channel showed many exclusive music videos for their first time. Scuzz often played live concerts including Slipknot, Korn, Devildriver and 36 Crazyfists. Scuzz had band 'Take-Overs' where artists presented music video shows, as well as interviews with artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Deftones, Machine Head and Kiss to smaller bands that are deemed up and coming.

They showed various interview shows including 'On Record', 'Scuzz Meets', 'The Lowdown' which centered around British rock festival 'Download Festival', and later a series called Access All Areas. Scuzz TV presenters included Terry 'Beez' Bezer, Sophie K, Daniel P Carter, Jon Mahon (Real name, Edwin Smith Jones), and Matt Stocks.

Scuzz had a presence at the majority of the UK, and some international rock festivals. Scuzz's festival partnerships at time of closure included:

Scuzz was available 24 hours a day on Sky channel 366. When it launched, it was originally owned by British Sky Broadcasting along with music channels The Amp and Flaunt, before they were bought by CSC Media Group and finally Sony Pictures Television following their acquisition of CSC.

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 31 July 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.

The channel abruptly closed on 15 November 2018, along with sister channel Sony Crime Channel 2 although there had been special shows towards the end of its lifespan celebrating the channel's history. The last video played on the channel was "Girl All the Bad Guys Want" by Bowling for Soup, until the channel crashed about a minute into the video.

On-air music video blocks/shows (at time of closure)
  • Back2Back
  • Rock All Stars
  • New Noise
  • Antiques Rock Show
  • Ass-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 2 March 2015, Scuzz launched Animax Movie Nights,[5] a block, provided by Sony Pictures Television under the Animax brand, that aired anime films streamed on SVOD in the UK and Ireland by the British version of Animax, which launched on 24 October 2013,[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 had begun to air more special, dedicated shows, such as a live performance from the metalcore group Trivium, and a weekend devoted to Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames.

On 21 December 2007, Scuzz was once again revamped; being given a much more industrial style look.

  • The original Scuzz logo (17 April 2003 – 1 April 2006)
  • The second Scuzz logo (1 April 2006 – 21 December 2007)
  • The third Scuzz logo (21 December 2007 – 12 May 2011)
  • The fourth Scuzz logo (13 May 2011 – 24 February 2015)
  • The fifth and final Scuzz logo (24 February 2015 – 15 November 2018)

References
  1. Plunkett, John (29 July 2015). "Sky profits rise as it passed 12 million UK and Ireland customers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  2. "Flava replaces Scuzz on Freesat". The Airwaves. 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011.
  3. "Scuzz To Return To Freesat This Week". Join Freesat. 1 November 2010.
  4. "Update Scan". Join Freesat. 15 July 2013.
  5. "Scuzz TV launch Animax Movie Nights". UK Anime Network. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  6. http://www.uk-anime.net/newsitem/Animax_UK_now_online.html
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