CMT is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel which airs country music and family-oriented general entertainment programs in the form of music videos, award shows, concerts, sitcoms and more. CMT is owned by Corus Entertainment (90%) and Viacom (10%). It is one of the two MTV-branded channels to be owned by Corus, the other being Nickelodeon.

Prior to the launch of CMT Canada, the American-based country television network, Country Music Television, was available in Canada since 1984.

In June 1994, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) licensed a series of new Canadian specialty television channels and among them was The Country Network, licensed to primarily feature country music videos (a minimum of 90%). The licence was granted to the partnership of Maclean-Hunter (60%) and Rawlco Communications (40%).

At this time, the CRTC had a policy where if a Canadian specialty service is licensed and that service's format is competitive with a foreign service's format that is licensed to operate in Canada, the foreign service may be terminated from operating in Canada. Due to Country Music Television's competitive format, the CRTC terminated Country Music Television's broadcasting rights in Canada on June 6, 1994. Television distributors such as cable and satellite television operators could continue distributing Country Music Television until the day that The Country Network began operation.

Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.

The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.

Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer, songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a winner of several Grammy Awards, Billboard Music Awards and American Music Awards, a Golden Globe Award nominee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and a two-time ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first-ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/10). Underwood was inducted into and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2009.Billboard named Underwood Country Music's reigning Queen in 2012.

Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is a Australian country music singer, songwriter and guitarist whose commercial success has been mainly in the United States and Australia. Urban was born in New Zealand and began his career in Australia at an early age. In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album, and charted four singles in Australia before moving to the United States in 1992. Eventually, Urban found work as a session guitarist before starting a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Records and charted two singles on the Billboard country charts.

Still signed to Capitol, he made his solo American debut in 1999 with the album Keith Urban. Certified platinum in the U.S., it also produced his first American Number One in "But for the Grace of God". His breakthrough hit was the Number One "Somebody Like You", from his second Capitol album Golden Road (2002). This album also earned Urban his first Grammy Award win for "You'll Think of Me", its fourth single and the fourth Billboard Number One of his career. 2004's Be Here, his third American album, produced three more Number Ones, and became his highest-selling album, earning 4× Multi-Platinum certification. Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing was released in 2006, producing the record-setting No.17 country chart debut of "Once in a Lifetime", as well as Urban's second Grammy for the song "Stupid Boy", while a Greatest Hits package entitled Greatest Hits: 18 Kids followed in late 2007. This album was re-released a year later as Greatest Hits: 19 Kids with one track added: the number one "You Look Good in My Shirt", which he had previously recorded on Golden Road. Additional albums Defying Gravity and Get Closer were released on 31 March 2009 and 16 November 2010, respectively.

Greg Hanna (born in Finch, Ontario, Canada) is a male Canadian country music singer. Signing with an independent label in 1995, Hanna charted several singles on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada, including the top ten hit "Ain't No Justice" from 1997, but his debut album was never issued. In 2005, Hanna appeared on the third season of Nashville Star, but dropped out after receiving an offer to work with producer Chris Farren. In 2007, Hanna toured Canada as the opening act for Canadian country band Emerson Drive's Countrified Tour. Hanna's debut self-titled album was issued in October 2009 in the United States and Canada on his own record label imprint, Pheromone Records LLC; with MegaForce Records and Sony. From his debut CD in the USA and Canada came the releases "It's a Man's Job," "What Kind of Love Are You On" and "Makin' Love Real." Their supporting music videos which earned Hanna exposure on television networks such as CMT, GAC and TCN. In 2010, Hanna signed with the Paradigm agency for representation and booked his first major USA tour as opening act on the American Ride Tour for Toby Keith and Trace Adkins.