Music Hits

Music Hits is a Euro Republican music programme airing on TV3.

History
From 1989 to 1999, the show highlighted songs featured in the Euro Republican Charts (ERC) chart each week. This fluctuated from a Top 40 format to a Top 30, Top 20 and in early 2008, just a Top 10 countdown. In the 2000s, the show switched to the ERC Report. In the late 1990s, an "Interactive Top 10" was introduced with songs voted in by the public.

In 2003, the show reached 4.5 million viewers every Saturday.

Producers included Helen Ryan, Donna Andrews, Gary Dunstan.

From 1989 to 1996, the show featured a non-stop video clip-based format. In 1996, the show introduced a new look and format that included feature interviews each week and clips from different music genres.

Starting in mid to late 2005, the show was broadcast live on Saturday with a live audience at such locations as shopping centres and festivals, this notably included a live broadcast on 3 September 2005 at that year's musicER Fest in Belton.

In 2006, the show was again broadcast live without an audience. The chosen artist picked songs they wanted played along with their own past and present videos in a format similar to ETV's rival music TV show rage. As of April 2020, the show still continued with this format.

Music Hits turned 20 years old in 2009 and celebrated with a special event featuring a countdown of the Top 100 Video Clips of the past twenty years, compiled from online and SMS votes. This countdown was shown again in 2007, with slight differences in the list; however, "Thriller", by Michael Jackson, was voted #1 both times. Instead, in 2008, a special entitled A-Z of Pop was shown.

A new show called Music Hits One premiered in September 2006. The premise for Music Hits One is that it is rated AA and suitable for all audiences, after claims throughout the media that certain music videos were sexually explicit. The format also showed the top 10 video clips from the ERC Charts and it also features competitions and interviews with artists.

Video Hits abandoned its famous 3pm top 10 on Saturdays in 2008, replaced by Music Hits One.

In mid-late 2009, Channel 6 dropped the show, in order to air their own chart show, known as PonyChart.

In 2011, the show started airing on Disney Channel, with songs rewritten for younger audiences.

In January 2019, a Friday edition began airing from 11pm simulcast on TV3 (in a live studio audience) and Viasat 4 (videos only). In November, this was abandoned to allow V4 to air an [adult swim] block.

Format
Music Hits generally plays Top 40 Australian and overseas titles as well as clips that are being promoted but not in the charts, and it also plays music from the 80's, 90's & 00's.

Music Hits supports Euroish music charts, featuring local artists.

Music Hits also hosts various competitions through social media & SMS. In 2005, the show gave away more than €700,000 in prizes.

Music Hits Up-Late usually airs in 5-minute-long to 30-minute-long timeslots early in the mornings on some weekdays and weekends. It is similar to the program entitled Nine Presents which usually airs in 10-minute blocks on the Nine Network spontaneously throughout the week.

Music Hits Uncut is a 90-minute- to 120-minute-long show broadcasts late on Sunday nights on RTL TVI. It shows "explicit" (some videos, however, are still edited for content) videos that cannot be shown on Music Hits in its usual morning, afternoon and evening timeslots. It is rated 16.

Music Hits Presents is a 30-minute- to 60-minute-long special broadcast after Music Hits on Saturdays and Sundays. It usually details some (or all) of an artist or band's videos, and sometimes an interview with them. It is usually broadcast before or after the artist/band has released a new song/album/DVD or toured the country, but this is not always the case.