The CRTC on Wednesday denied Canyon.TV’s bid to launch and operate Canyon Music TV, a national English-language specialty channel devoted to music videos and music video programming from past and current artists.

It turns out that, faced with a wall of opposition from Bell Media and its existing music-themed channels, the Canyon Music TV applicants didn’t put up much of a fight.

The Canyon application, filed in June 2011, proposed programming to include all musical genres, with a main focus on pop, rock and rhythm and blues, and broadcast music shows like the branded CanyonTV CentreStage and live and pre-recorded concerts.

But Canyon.TV came up against a brick wall after receiving an intervention from Bell Media Inc., which argued that Canyon Music TV would compete directly with MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic.

In its application, Canyon.TV proposed to distinguish itself from competitors MTV and MuchMusic by broadcasting only music-related programming and music videos.

And it proposed standing out from another potential rival, Country Music Television, in its choice of mainstream programming genres.

In its intervention, Bell said that the proposed Canyon Music TV service would duplicate in more than 50% of its potential programming existing content on Bell Media’s services.

Canyon.TV, seeing the industry opposition, did not reply to Bell’s intervention.

The CRTC determined that Canyon.TV’s proposed service didn’t sufficiently identify distinct music genres or target audiences where it would distinguish itself from mainstream Category A services like MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic.

And, the CRTC said the unsuccessful applicant did not put forward limits on the programming to be drawn from the proposed program categories for the service.

The regulator denied the application from Canyon.TV on the grounds that the proposed specialty Canyon Music TV service would compete directly with MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic and CMT.