A week after launching the Canadian version of MTV, VP of production Mark McInnis was predictably bullish about the new channel’s debut, and was starting, however cautiously, to think about expanding its program slate.

The heavily hyped lifestyle channel made its debut on March 21 with a slate of 20 shows. All seven of its Canadian programs are made in-house, but McInnis says MTV could be ready to deal with independent producers within the year.

‘It’s definitely likely,’ he says. ‘We’re really interested in opening the doors. We don’t have a concise shopping list of what we’re looking for, nor do we have producer guidelines, but sometime within the six-month launch period we’re going to come up with those things and reach out to the independent community.’

The CTV-backed specialty has replaced Talk TV on dials across Canada, and inherited its chatty, lifestyle-focused licence – sidestepping a possible regulatory skirmish with CHUM and its many music video channels.

CHUM – which eventually consumed and rebranded this country’s two previous MTV channels – has said it will watch to make sure this latest version doesn’t stray from its music-less mandate. But McInnis, who also worked on the launch of Talk TV, insists he has ‘no love for playing music videos.’

‘I know the licence intimately and I wouldn’t trade it for anybody’s,’ he says.

And yet, this new MTV is more than just a TV channel. It has also put a big push behind its online sister service MTV Overdrive, which does run videos and concerts, which could be seen as an end-run around the licence.

Not so, insists SVP and GM Brad Schwartz. ‘It’s not a way to get around the licence… but we’ll use every communication tool at our disposal to give people MTV content how they want it, when they want it,’ he says. The ‘six arms of MTV’ also include video on demand and plans for mobile programming.

The Canadian-made shows on MTV include the daily talk hour MTV Live – shot at what used to be CTV’s studio in downtown Toronto – and the entertainment magazine MTV e2, which runs four nights a week.

The channel is also turning out Canuck versions of shows that are already well-known on the original MTV: the house-touring Cribs, the star-follower Diary and the hour-long doc series True Life. McInnis plans to shoot between six and 12 episodes of each per year, for starters, on a ‘catch as catch can’ basis.

‘This is a pattern we recognized from MTV itself,’ he says. ‘We hunt for good stories and we go when we can, and when we run out of budget for the year we’re done.’

www.mtv.ca