CMT Announces Commitment to Full Gender Parity for Music Videos Played on Their Channel

Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste

Read our announcement | See the 10 Best Games of 2025 (So Far)

The country music television channel CMT has pledged that the music videos played on their network will have 50/50 gender parity—meaning that men and women artists will get the exact same amount of screen time.

Effective immediately all music video hours on CMT and CMT Music channels will have complete parity between male and female artists. That means 50/50. #CMTEqualPlay
— CMT (@CMT) January 21, 2020

Many fans are praising the network’s decision, still energized by a recent segment of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee featuring Margo Price on the discrimination women face in the realm of country music.

Country music does indeed have a problem when it comes to giving women artists their fair share of play time. Women only account for 13% of artists played on country radio stations, and men on the airwaves claim that this is because giving women artists more spins will lower their ratings.

And this is closely linked to who, in turn, is nominated for awards and able to receive recognition for their work. According to a 2019 study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, only 15% of the Academy of Country Music Awards nominees for Entertainer of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Duo of the Year and Group of the Year were women.